Unmasked
by MoonDrake
Summary: Can Naruto learn to live without his mask of smiles, will his friends accept the real Naruto? Naruto is powerful and not the Dobe that everyone thinks he is.
1. Unmasked

My new Naruto fic

My new Naruto fic! I know I'm still working on my other stories, but I keep getting hit with ideas and if I don't write them down immediately, I'll regret it later.

To those "Dead or Alive," fans, I might have Toru and Tala appear in this fic.

…………………..

"Talking"

'Thoughts'

/Kyuubi/

True Self

"Hey, Naruto!"

The blond inwardly sighed in annoyance as he put on a goofy grin. "Hi Sakura-chan! Do you want to go out!?"

"Why would I go out with you? You know I like Sasuke-kun!" She yelled back at him. She turned to the silent boy next to her.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, want to go out?" Sasuke just glared at her. Sakura flinched and walked a few steps away. (It's a miracle, Sakura can take a hint now!)

'Maybe I should let them see the real me, I mean I've been in a team with them for five years. They're my friends, they'll accept the real me…won't they Kyu?'

/I don't know kit. Most of your friends will probably wonder what you've been drinking./ Kyuubi snickered.

'You're such a great help.' Naruto thought sarcastically.

/I know, I am great. Anyway go greet that perverted teacher of yours./

Naruto snapped out of his conversation to see his teammates and Kakashi looking at him in confusion.

"What?"

"You didn't scream, 'You're late!' with Sakura." Kakashi replied.

"Oh…You're late!!" Naruto pointed an accusing finger at his sensei. Everyone sweatdropped.

"Okay then…anyway, today we will have a B-rank mission. We're supposed to go the wave country and help them fight off some bandits."

'Guess I should act excited.' Naruto jumped up into the air. "Yeah, we get to go see old man Tazuna and Inari!"

Sasuke shook his head in embarrassment when people passing by looked over at the hyperactive blond. Sakura punched him on the head and Kakashi…pulled out his book and was soon blocking out the sound of his bickering students.

…………………

/Hey kit, you better say something stupid. That pervert is starting to wonder why you're being so quiet./

'Great, I was enjoying the quiet.' Naruto grumbled in his head. Naruto looked over at Kakashi with a dorky smile on his face. He opened his mouth quite a bit wider than needed to talk. "Hey Kaka-sensei, how much longer till we get there?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes at his obnoxious student and answered. "Well, considering that it's a three day trip and we just left three hours ago…about two days and twenty-one hours to go.

Sakura yelled, "Quit being so annoying Naruto, I was enjoying the quietness."

Naruto rolled his eyes in his mind. 'She calls me annoying, that pink-haired brat is twice as loud as I am. I bet that isn't even her natural hair color.' (Don't worry Sakura fans, I'm not a Sakura hater, she'll get nicer later.)

/I bet her real hair color is dark red so she adds bleach to her hair to make it pink./

'Wouldn't her hair be less bright?'

/Sooo…what's your point?/

Naruto sighed and decided to ignore his annoying furry conscious.

………….

Three days, twenty hours, forty-eight minutes and thirty-two seconds later…

In Naruto's mind, he was ready to crack. 'How the heck are my teammates more annoying then my mask?!'

/I have no idea. With your yelling, Pinkie's screaming and hitting, Moody's 'hn's' and Pervy's strange sayings…I have one hell of a headache./

'Sorry, I would stop yelling, but then they start wondering if something's wrong with me. I think I gave myself a headache. Is that even possible…my own voice gave me a headache…' While Naruto pondered this, the group finally reached the Wave village.

"Naruto!!" The group turned to see an excited young boy run up. The old bridge builder right behind.

'Ow.' Naruto thought as the young boy flung himself at Naruto. He quickly put on a goofy grin.

"Inari, what's going on?" The young boy grinned widely at his hero.

"Everything's great except for those stupid bandits. Yesterday they almost killed some villagers."

"Well don't worry, the great Naruto will take care of them!" Naruto did his nice guy pose. 'Oh my gosh, must resist the urge to strangle self.'

/Oh, can I do it?!/ Kyuubi asked excitedly.

'Not yet, everyone would wonder why I dropped dead all of a sudden.'

/Dang…can I do it later?/

'Maybe.'

"Uh, Naruto?" Kakashi asked concerned.

"Huh?"

"You were spacing out."

"Oh…I just…um…want some ramen, it's been days since I had some."

"Naruto, you baka!" Sakura punched him into a new Naruto-shaped crater.

Everyone except Kakashi seemed to accept this excuse. 'Something's wrong with him.

……………………..

'Kyu, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up.'

Naruto was lying in his bedroll, everyone sleeping around him.

/Well kit, why don't you be yourself, if they're really your friends they'll understand./

'But what if they don't and they end up hating me for lying?'

/Then…sucks to be you./

'Thanks a lot.'

/Anytime, that's what I'm here for./

………………………

"Naruto, watch out, to your left!" Kakashi called out as he dodged a sword being swung toward his head.

Naruto turned and punched the bandit trying to stab him in the side.

Naruto had several cuts and bruises and it didn't help that he had to restrain most of his chakra because of his 'mask.' A few feet away, Sakura was panting and was clearly exhausted. Sasuke wasn't much better and even Kakashi was tiring.

'Crap, there's too many of them.'

/Use your real power before you all die!/ Kyu screamed inside his head.

'B…but….'

Naruto looked over and saw Sakura fall to the ground, a bandit had his sword raised above his head, aimed straight for Sakura.

/Kit, use it or Pinkie's gonna die!/

'But, I…'

The bandit brought his sword down. Everything seemed to slow. The sword got closer and closer to Sakura. /Save her!/

Naruto ran toward Sakura with incredible speed. He pulled out a kunai and blocked the sword from going any further. Everyone turned in surprise at the sudden clang of metal on metal.

'How did he do that! He blocked the sword! He was ten feet away but he got there in less than a second!' Sasuke thought, thoroughly stunned.

Kakashi's mouth was hanging open under his mask.

The bandit, who Naruto had blocked, stared in surprise. Before he had a chance to recover, Naruto brought his kunai up sharply. The sword was flung into a tree and embedded itself through up to the hilt.

Naruto brought his fist up into the man's stomach and sent him flying, thirty feet away. The bandit was dead before he hit the ground.

'What the hell! How did he kill him by punching his stomach!' Sasuke was angered and confused at the strength the Dobe was showing.

"I'm stronger than you think, Sasuke-teme." Naruto turned and glared at the Uchiha.

Sasuke glared back and tried to cover his shock.

"Sasuke, can we finish this later, there's still a bunch of bandits left." Naruto turned and called out to Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei, come over here. You too Sasuke." Kakashi jumped over to Naruto and Sakura and Sasuke reluctantly walked over too.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Kakashi asked, warily watching the approaching bandits.

"Brace yourselves." Was all Naruto said.

"Wh-" Sasuke stopped abruptly, feeling massive amounts of chakra pouring out of Naruto's body. Sasuke was speechless as he started seeing the blue chakra.

All the chakra started gathering in a large swirling ball in front of him. The jutsu resembled a rasengan, except for the fact that it was the size of a house. Wind was whipping around the sphere. Kakashi and Sasuke nearly fell over as the wind blew around them. Naruto's hair was flying everywhere. His headband was wrenched off and his jacket burst open.

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura were staring in amazement at the 'dobe.'

'Where did he get all that power!' Kakashi uncovered his sharingan and tried to analyze the strange jutsu.

"That won't work, this jutsu is impossible to analyze or copy. Also, none of this is Kyuubi's power." Naruto called back to his team.

Finally Naruto released his jutsu and it barreled toward the frightened bandits. They were obviously frozen with fear because no one tried to dodge as they saw the swirling ball of doom coming toward them.

The ball covered the group of bandits, ripping up the earth as it went. No one even had time to scream as the chakra enveloped them. After a couple minutes, the chakra finally dispersed showing…nothing. No trace of the bandits was there, they had been completely vaporized.

Naruto finally turned around and looked at each team member in turn. Each one were trying to control their shock.

"N…Naruto, what was that?" Sakura asked fearfully.

"An altered rasengan, it doesn't have a name yet, Ero-sennin, calls it the giant vapo-ball of doom." He quietly chuckled to himself.

"No, I mean, what was that, all of that?"

Naruto hesitated for a moment them answered, "The real me."


	2. Stories

Thanks for the reviews people

Thanks for the reviews people! I love reviews, just no flames please!

……………….

Chapter 2

……………….

"What do you mean, the real you?" Sakura asked.

Naruto sighed and walked toward the village. "I'll explain at Inari's, they should know too." The three remaining ninja looked at each other, confusion clearly written on their faces, but they hurried along to keep up with Naruto.

………………..

Inari's House

………………..

Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, Inari, Tazuna, and Tsunami all sat around the kitchen table, waiting expectantly for Naruto to explain things.

Naruto looked at each person and sighed…again. "Well, I guess I should tell you all, the hyper, knuckleheaded ninja is not who you think he is."

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked hesitantly.

"Well, what you think you know about me is all wrong." Seeing their confusion, Naruto continued, "Well for example, the Naruto you know loves ramen…I actually hate the stuff."

Naruto looked over at each person again and noticed they all had stunned expressions, Sakura and Sasuke's jaws had dropped to the table. "W…What!?" Sakura finally yelled. Everyone at the table noticed when Naruto flinched at her voice.

Naruto rubbed his ears and glared at the kunoichi. "Also, my hearing is about three times better than yours."

Everyone seemed to ponder this strange new Naruto for a moment before Sakura said rather loudly, "So, why-" She cut off when she saw Naruto winch slightly. "Sorry," she continued, more quietly. "So, why did you hide this from us, why do you have a…a…mask?" She struggled to find the right word.

Naruto's eyes glazed over and he seemed as if he were having painful memories. "Well, it started when I was about four. According to the Third, I was very advanced for my age."

Flashback

…………….

A five-year old Naruto was practicing his henge jutsu with the Hokage. "Great job Naruto, you almost have it down." The old man said encouragingly. The small blond boy smiled with pride as he tried the jutsu once more.

"That was perfect," The man smiled at the young boy, "I think that's enough for today." He added when he saw Naruto panting slightly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some coins, "Let's go get some lunch." He reached over and grabbed the boy's small hand and started walking toward the ramen shop.

"Have you ever had ramen before?" The Hokage asked and smiled when the boy shook his head 'no.' "It's kind of like soup, except most of it is noodles instead of meat or vegetables. Also, the man who owns the ramen stand is very kind."

Naruto smiled hopefully, "Do you think he'll like me?"

The Hokage smiled sympathetically and answered, "I hope so, Naruto, I hope so."

………………….

"Hello, Ayame, I have a new customer for you." The Third steered his charge over to a stool and lifted him up to it.

A kind- looking girl, about 11, turned around, and smiled at the boy. 'He looks nervous.' She noted. "Hi, I'm Ayame, what's your name?" She asked sweetly.

Naruto looked away shyly and answered quietly, "I…I'm Naruto."

Ayame gave him a big smile and said, "It's very nice to meet you Naruto." Then she turned toward the back and called out, "Father, we have customers!"

A wrinkled, old man came out and smiled broadly when he saw the Hokage sitting at the stool. "Hokage-sama, what can I do for you?" He asked enthusiastically.

"I have a new customer, this is Naruto." The Hokage gave the man a warning stare, but he needn't worry for the man just smiled and welcomed the boy as he would anyone else.

Naruto was thoroughly confused now, 'This man is being nice to me!' Most of the adults in the village hated him for no apparent reason, but this man was….was…asking him what he wanted to eat!

"Ummm…." Naruto said, not sure what to say. The Hokage chuckled and ordered two miso ramen.

When the ramen came, Naruto hesitantly picked up some chopsticks and grabbed some noodles. With an encouraging nod from the Hokage he took a big bite of the soup and…nearly gagged. But not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings, he smiled and gulped down the whole bowl. He found that if he didn't breathe through his nose, then the taste wasn't as strong and was very filling.

……………………….

Naruto was running down the street toward his small apartment. As he turned down a small ally he continued running through to his home. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder yank him down and he looked up with big frightened eyes to see a sneering man standing over him with three other guys.

They were all glaring at him and each had a weapon in their hands.

"P….P..Please, I…didn't do anything wrong!" Naruto cried out fearfully.

"You little demon! We've seen you training and the Hokage always says how smart you are! You're already getting too strong! Once you're strong enough you're going to attack this village. But we're gonna stop you before that!" And with that the first man lunged at the small boy with a raised bat.

Naruto quickly did some hand signs that the Hokage had taught him and said "Shadow clone jutsu!" Unfortunately he still wasn't very good at that one and he only managed to make one poor copy of himself.

"See the demon's already using our village's jutsus against us!" Another man cried out. This man raised a kunai and raced forward to lodge the weapon in the real boy's arm.

Encouraged by the cry of pain, the other men soon joined in and attacked the boy. Kicking, punching, beating and slashing the boy, he was soon unconscious.

"Stop!" Three Anbu appeared behind the men and roughly pushed them away from the small boy.

"You are all under arrest for the assault of Uzumaki, Naruto." An Anbu with a hawk mask said.

Another Anbu with a wolf mask gently lifted the beaten boy and disappeared. The remaining two Anbu grabbed the men and disappeared as well.

………………………..

"Naruto, what have those men done to you." The Third asked quietly, watching the prone figure of the five-year old boy.

"Old man, why do they hate me?" A small voice asked. Naruto opened his large blue eyes that were filled with tears. The Hokage reached over and pulled the boy into a hug and decided the boy should know.

"Well, do you know about the Kyuubi?"

"Yeah, the Fourth killed it."

"Well, the Kyuubi was too strong to be killed so instead the Fourth had to seal the Kyuubi inside of a newborn child."

Tears spilled down the boy's face, "And that child was…me." He finished. The Hokage nodded, his heart nearly breaking at the sight of the boy's sad face.

"I….I'm the….demon!" He cried out, tears spilling uncontrollably down the small face.

The Hokage hugged the boy again and replied fiercely, "You are not the demon! You are merely the container, everyone in this village should see you as a hero. You are the only one keeping the Kyuubi from attacking this village."

…………………..

End Flashback

…………………..

Naruto sighed when he saw all the shocked faces staring at him. Sakura and Tsunami had tears running down their faces.

"Well, that's how my mask came to be. I found that the attacks were less frequent and less painful, if they didn't think I was very smart, strong, and I didn't fight back. So I made a mask. The villagers don't think an idiot can destroy the village."

"Oh Naruto!" Sakura came over and pulled the boy into an embrace. Naruto stiffened and everyone noticed.

Pulling away he explained, "Sorry, I'm not used to physical contact, well I am, but usually it's to hurt me."

"But, how did you hide that from us? We're with you most of the time." Sasuke asked.

"It wasn't hard, most of the contact was from Sakura, and most of that was hits. I didn't even have to hide my flinching." Naruto said coldly.

Sakura dipped her head in shame and more tears flowed from her green eyes. "I am so sorry, Naruto."

Naruto shrugged, "You were gentler than the villagers so I don't have much to forgive."

He turned to Kakashi. "You haven't said much." He stated.

"Well, what is there to say except, what are you really like, Naruto?" He answered, for once, not pulling out his book.

"Well, for one thing, I hate this orange jumpsuit, and since we're in the wave village I can finally get some decent clothes. Also, I can finally get rid of this special henge."

"What henge?" Everyone asked. Naruto grinned slyly and released his jutsu in a poof of smoke.

"This henge." Naruto's features were more defined and to a blushing Sakura, 'He's handsome!' His blond hair was longer and with surprise Kakashi noted, 'He almost looks exactly like Minato-sensei!' (Okay so is his name actually Minato or Arashi? All the fics with him are confusing me.)

What everyone was most surprised by was Naruto now stood an inch or so taller than Sasuke!

He was still wearing the orange jumpsuit, but it now looked way too small on Naruto's lithe form.

Getting over the shock Sasuke finally smirked, "I always wondered why you always looked like a baby compared to everyone else in our age group."

Naruto grinned, "Well, the villagers felt less threatened if the Kyuubi brat looked like a little kid playing ninja. They don't want to see an actual shinobi."

Sakura walked over and grabbed Naruto's arm, "Well, if you're gonna look older, you need something to wear besides that ugly orange thing you call clothes."

"Hey it was the only thing the shop keepers would let me buy!" He retorted defensively.

………………………

Okay my hand hurts. Five pages…My friends think I'm crazy because I write so much over the weekends…I am crazy….I like cheese! Oh yeah, if you guys didn't know, I am a totally random person! My favorite sayings are…I like cheese….Apples are blurple like bananas…or….Chickens have feelings too! If the room is totally quiet sometime, just randomly shout out one of these phrases and everyone will look at you like you're crazy.

Anyway, review please!


	3. Twin Claws

Hey everyone, sorry for the late update, but I'm really trying to finish Dead and Alive right now, but I'm trying my best

Hey everyone, sorry for the late update, but I'm really trying to finish Dead and Alive right now, but I'm trying my best! Also my computer deleted all my files twice so I lost my newest chapters so I had to start over, this is my third time writing this. Thanks for all the reviews!

………………

Chapter Three

………………

"Kakashi-san, when are Naruto, Sakura and Inari supposed to get back, dinner's almost done." Tsunami asked the shinobi who was currently giggling into a little orange book.

"They said before dinner, so, probably…now."

And indeed 'now' they came, well at least Sakura and Inari. Both were giggling and in Sakura's case blushing slightly. "Is everyone here?" Sakura asked. Looking around she became satisfied when she saw everyone except Naruto present.

"Okay, now introducing the new and improved, Naruto!" Inari opened the door along with Sakura's commentary, revealing Naruto.

"Hey, I've always been like this so techniqully this isn't new." Naruto grumbled.

He looked around in surprise as he noticed that everyone had slight thunder-struck expressions on their faces. "What, is it really that different?" Naruto asked innocently.

Yes, indeed it was that different because instead of a horrid orange jumpsuit, Naruto now wore loose black shorts that went a few inches lower than his knees. On both his right and left thighs were shuriken and kunai holsters. Leg weights were visible on both his legs and black ninja sandals adorned his feet.

On top was a simple dark red t-shirt. His Konaha headband was around his neck. On his arms there seemed to be summoning marks.

There was stunned silence in the small room until Kakashi asked, "What are those summoning marks?"

Sakura looked over at Naruto's arms, "I was wondering that too, they were already there hidden underneath that jumpsuit."

Naruto bit both his thumbs and smeared the blood down both of his arms in one fluid motion. There was a poof of smoke. They heard the slight clink of metal. When the smoke cleared, there was renewed awestruck silence.

In each hand there was a vicious looking claw. In his left was a three-pronged claw that was black with red blades. In his right was its twin except the blade was gold.

"Where did you get those?" Kakashi asked, staring at the finely crafted blades.

Naruto shrugged and replied, "Kyuubi."

There was silence before Naruto sighed, "I'm guessing you want to know the story?"

At the received nods, Naruto sighed again and sat down.

……………………

In the small, dark apartment a small boy lay on the bed, sobbing. The poor boy was nursing the numerous bruises, scrapes and cuts all along his small frame.

After many moments the exhausted boy silently slipped into unconsciousness, curled up and bleeding onto the bed.

"Come here kit." Kyuubi said as the small boy entered the room. The boy looked around fearfully and asked, "Why am I here again Kyu, am I dead?"

"Kit, if you were dead, you wouldn't be here, but you are terribly injured." Kyuubi reached out one of his tails from the bars and wrapped it protectively around his young charge.

"Kyuubi, why do the villagers have to keep hurting me? I'm only seven, what can I do to them?" The boy asked, his large blue eyes pooling with unshed tears.

"The villagers are just stupid, they think that you are me. You just have to earn their respect and prove that you aren't a demon." Kyuubi explained gently. The little boy, wrapped in the fox tail's embrace wiped his tears and put on a determined expression.

"I'll become the greatest shinobi and protect the village, then everyone will respect me!" The little boy jumped up and started running toward the door, Kyuubi watching, amused, behind him.

"Hey kit, first you need something to protect yourself with, something to help become stronger." Kyuubi called. The boy stopped and turned around.

"Huh?"

Kyuubi sighed and beckoned the boy back over with his tail. "Come here." Naruto obeyed and bounced back over to the kitsune.

"Here, train with these and become the best shinobi you can be." Kyuubi held out one of his large claws. Hanging from the tip of the claws were twin claw blades, three- pronged and deadly sharp.

Taking the claws with awe, the boy fitted them to his small hands and found they fit perfectly.

"As you get bigger, the claws with also get bigger, so they'll always fit you. Now get out of here, I'm getting a headache." The fox groaned in mock annoyance.

"Thanks Kyu, I'll become the greatest shinobi ever!" The boy hugged on of Kyuubi's tails before rushing out, eager to start training."

…………………………

"And, well, that's how I got these." Naruto gestured to the two summoned blades.

Sasuke smirked and started toward the door, "Well, dobe, let's see if you can actually use those."

Naruto just smirked back and replied, "Your funeral." Both boys walked out the door and headed toward the forest.

Kakashi sighed, "I was expecting him to yell something back at him like, you're on, teme!" Sakura nodded in agreement, "I don't know which Naruto I like better."

………………………

"Sasuke, you're really slow." Naruto taunted as Sasuke tried, unsuccessfully, to get behind Naruto and land a punch. Somehow Naruto ended up behind Sasuke, and Sasuke was the one trying to avoid the quick blow.

"Shut up dobe, I can still beat you." Sasuke retorted using his Phoenix Flower justu.

"Really, then why aren't I beaten yet?" Naruto teased, flipping and weaving gracefully, never once getting hit.

"Don't worry, you will." Sasuke replied with a smirk.

"I don't think so, you haven't seen what I can do yet." Naruto charged forward, claws extended. Sasuke barely stopped the red blade with a kunai. Naruto brought the gold claws down toward Sasuke's head, who quickly jumped up into the trees. The gold blades didn't stop and sliced through a large tree that Sasuke was currently crouching in.

The trunk of the tree started sliding down, sliced through the middle diagonally, in a perfect cut.

Sasuke leapt from the tree and turned toward Naruto, shuriken in hand. He aimed and threw his shuriken toward Naruto who was standing across the clearing.

The shuriken flew closer and closer to Naruto, when…he suddenly disappeared.

"What the hell." Sasuke grumbled as he felt a sharp blade at his throat.

Behind him Naruto smirked, "I win."

…………………….

Okay there's chappie 3!

Also, I'd love it if people who check out my art. I have drawn lots of wolves and some dragons, and I'm going to start drawing some characters from my stories and get them up eventually. The links in my profile, check it out and leave a comment!


	4. Teleportation Jutsu

"Why can't I just keep pretending, I don't need to do this

"Why can't I just keep pretending, I don't need to do this." Naruto begged attempting once again to grab some of his old clothes. The four were currently getting closer and closer to home, having said goodbye to the wave village a couple days ago.

"Ugg, I thought I burned that!" Sakura yelled, grabbing the orange monstrosity and ripping it in half.

"I always bring extra clothes, and why did you just do that?"

"Because, it's hideous. Anyway, it's about time you tell everyone what you're really like." Sakura retorted, grabbing Naruto's arm and dragging him closer to the Konaha gates.

"Well, what am I gonna say? 'Hey guys, this is me, I'm not the stupid little kid that you thought I was' Come on!"

Naruto pulled away and took a step backwards. "It's better that they don't know."

Naruto felt hands grab his shoulders.

"Come on Dobe, we're telling them.

"He's right Naruto, they'll be just fine with you."

"Traitors." Naruto hissed at the two.

Sakura clapped her hands together. "Okay, so how are we going to introduce you?"

Three shinobi turned their heads toward her with confused looks. Sakura sighed in frustration. "Oh, come on, you can't just walk up to them, you need something flashy, but high leveled to show them that we're not kidding. Show them some of your power!"

The other three sweat dropped. "Umm, is this really necessary?" Naruto asked.

Sakura turned and angry glare toward him, her head seeming to grow in size. "OF COURSE WE DO!" She shouted towering over him.

Naruto put his hands up in surrender. "Okay, Okay!" Behind him Sasuke and Kakashi sweat dropped and backed away.

"Good!" Sakura chirped returning to her previously happy self. "Now, what kind of transportation jutsus do you know?

"I can do the one Kakashi can do." Naruto supplied.

"No, to boring."

"Well, I don't really know any others." Naruto said carefully. He actually did know many other flashy ones like fire, ice, and wind, but he wasn't going to tell Sakura that, or he'd have to do something spectacular and useless.

Sakura glared at him. "You do know others, I saw you disappear in a swirl of snow, in the wave country."

'Dammit.'

"If you can do snow, you can probably do others, now tell me what they are!"

'Geez, all this over an introduction, don't you already know these people?' Kyuubi asked.

'Yes, I don't know why Sakura is getting so worked up about this, she's kinda weird.'

'We already knew that.'

'Good point.'

"Sakura I don't think we need to do this, I'll show them what I can do during training." Naruto complained, attempting to walk to the gates. Sakura quickly pulled him back.

"Hey, you've embarrassed me enough over the years, so you can show off a bit and show everyone what a strong, cool teammate I now have."

'So that's it, she wants to prove she has the best team.'

'Although why would she want that?'

'I think she's sick of being teased about having the most annoying teammate in the history of annoying teammates.'

'Was I really that bad?'

'Do you really want me to answer that?'

'Okay, I was that bad.'

"Okay fine." Naruto sighed, causing Sakura to grin triumpantly. "Let's see, well I can teleport with fire, water, wind, earth, smoke, leaves, snow, and sakura blossoms." Naruto ticked off on his fingers.

He looked up into his teammates' shocked faces. "…what?"

………………………

Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi walked into Konaha. Kakashi headed toward the Hokage's office for his report, while Sakura and Sasuke headed toward the training grounds where the rookie nine would often train together.

Coming closer to the grounds they could feel chakra signatures from the entire rookie nine and Gai's team. "Good, we don't have to find anyone." Sakura said excitedly, running toward her comrades.

"Hey everyone!" She waved to the nine ninja. "Hey Sakura, Sasuke!" Ino called back.

"What's up?" Ino asked, puzzled by Sakura's grin. The other eight came up behind Ino.

"You know how Naruto's the dobe?" Sakura could barely contain her amusement.

"Umm…well, yeah…" TenTen replied, slightly confused.

"Well, I don't think we're aloud to call him dobe anymore." Sakura said.

"What do you mean? What else could he be?" Kiba asked. By now everyone was very confused, except for Sakura and Sasuke.

"Well…" Sakura said trailing off.

Sasuke sighed impatiently, "Hey dobe, get out here." He called. Right in between Sasuke and Sakura, a mini tornado or bright green leaves and sakura petals blew around a blond-haired shinobi.

"Is that.." Ino started.

Naruto raised his head, cocking it to the side slightly, "Yo."

…………………

"So he finally decided to tell everyone." Tsunade grinned, downing a cup of sake.

"Bout time." Jiraya said, leaning on the windowsill.

"You both knew?" Kakashi asked.

"Of course we knew, I trained him for three years, and Tsunade is like a mother to him." Jiraya answered. "So, what teleportation jutsu is he using?"

"How did you know he was going to use a teleportation jutsu?"

"Because, Sakura's on that team." Tsuande answered.

………………..

"Yo."

"…………."

All nine shinobi were shocked into silence. Standing in front of them was no longer the runty annoying brat, now he was a tall, mature-looking (they weren't sure if he was actually mature yet.) man.

"No way, are you seriously…Naruto?" Ino finally managed.

"No, I'm a three-headed koala with blue and red polka-dotted fur…Of course I'm Naruto! Who else has hair this color?" Naruto retorted sarcastically.

"About time." Shikamaru smirked.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Shikamaru knew. He caught me training one night." Naruto replied.

"Oh sure, you tell Shikamaru, but you don't tell your own teammates!"

Naruto backed away from the currently angry Sakura.

"N..n…Naruto, is that…really you?" Hinata stuttered. Naruto smiled gently, "Yes, it is."

Hinata…fainted.

"Why does she always faint?" Naruto asked exasperated, easily lifting her and setting her under a tree.

"There is no way, that you are Naruto, you're like a foot taller, and, you're not loud!" Kiba shouted, Akamaru barking agreement."

"Well I've been this tall for a year, I just had a special genjutsu on, also, I've always been quiet, I just express quietness differently." Naruto smirked at Kiba's obvious confusion to his last statement.

Naruto looked over his comrades that had yet to speak. "Lee, you can close your mouth, Chouji you can resume eating your chips, Ten Ten and Ino, you have some drool on your chin, Shino…well just stay how you are."

…………….

Sorry for late update, I thought my laptop had died…until I found out a week later that the cord was unplugged. Please review!

Okay, I don't think there's going to be a pairing for this story. I totally suck at writing pairings and romance kinda stuff, so sorry. Also I have no clue about ninja gaiden so no I do not know if the claws look like the ones from that, sorry.


	5. Suna

They were surprised, actually they were shocked

They were surprised, actually they were shocked. The rookie nine and Gai's team were staring wide eyed at the shinobi in front of them. He had just finished telling his story and now they were all speechless.

Naruto sighed. "You all look like dead fish." Sakura gave him a questioning look at his statement. "You know, dead fish with their eyes wide open and their gaping mouths. Also, Kiba you kinda stink." Naruto explained. Kiba flushed and glared, "No I don't!"

"Yes you do, you smell like wet dog." Naruto complained, holding his nose for emphasis. Kiba growled something under his breath. The others only heard the words, "sarcastic, teme, and cats." Naruto gasped and in mock horror exclaimed, "Kiba! Now that is just plain rude."

Kiba glared and murmured, "Stupid super hearing." Naruto grinned, "Don't forget super smell too!"

"Stupid bragging fox."

"So Naruto…how strong are you?" Ten Ten asked.

Naruto thought for a moment then replied, "Well, I've beat Ero-sennin the last twelve times we sparred and I beat obaa-chan the last three times." Naruto rolled his eyes, "Would you all stop giving me the stupid fish stare!"

When no one seemed to listen he turned toward Sasuke, Sakura and Shikamaru. They were the only ones who weren't giving him the 'dead fish stare'.

"So, you wanna get some sushi?" At this Ino, Ten Ten and Hinata fainted and the rest concluded that this was a dream.

……………………

"Naruto why are you doing this?" Sakura asked in annoyance. Naruto was refusing to enter the streets of Konaha without a henge. He now had black short hair, he was a couple inches shorter and his eyes were green.

"Because, everyone will say I'm a stupid demon brat, blah blah blah, I'm getting to strong, blah blah, let's kill him! Then I proceed to ignore them, some drunk guy throws a bottle at me, I lose my temper and almost kill the guy, then the other villagers annoy Baa-chan about getting rid of me, then I go visit baa-chan and I end up in a wall for causing her annoyance." The others gave him confused looks.

"It happens every time; it's like a…tradition. Although now that I actually look strong something new might happen. I don't know if my poor heart could take all the change." Naruto smirked at the last part. Sakura reached out to punch him but he merely teleported to her other side in a poof of smoke.

Sakura jumped in surprise. "Don't do that!"

Naruto put on an big-eyed, I'm- totally-innocent-so-deal-with-it face. "I have not the slightest idea of what you accuse me of."

Sakura settled for glaring at the orange, actually black-haired annoyance. "Whatever, let's just go eat."

Naruto grinned triumphantly.

………………….

Naruto sighed as he walked down the street. Whispers followed him everywhere he went. People stopped to glare as he passed, then turning to their companions they said something insulting about the jinchuuriki.

"Stupid villagers, stupid village."

'Want me to burn it down to nothing?' Kyuubi asked.

'No, obaa-chan would get mad at me.'

'True…I could burn her too.'

'Shut up.'

Naruto continued down the street until he finally came to the Hokage Tower. He leapt up to the roof and headed toward the open window. Creeping in he put his mouth up to the sleeping woman's ear and shouted, "Obaa-chan, Konaha's being invaded by the Sound!" Tsunade jumped up and started shouting orders, "Gather all available shinobi and split them into four groups, o-"She stopped when she noticed Naruto, smirking as he leaned against the wall.

"Oi! Brat!" She grabbed an empty sake bottle and threw it at the blond. He merely caught it, four inches from his face and grinned.

Settling down into her chair, Tsunade sighed and glared at the boy. "What do you want?" She demanded grumpily.

"A mission." Naruto replied coolly.

Tsunade gave him a surprised look. "You just got back from one, why do you want to go so soon?"

"I'm sick of everyone giving me weird looks. Ever since I told them about me, they don't look at me the same. They almost seem…scared."

Tsuande gave him an understanding look. "You just have to give them some time to get used to you. Also, you are kind of scary." She teased.

"Good, then I can scare away all the old hags and perverts." Naruto retorted. He walked over to the window and hauled something into the room that had been hiding under the windowsill.

"Hey, ero-sennin."

"Gaki. You're too smart for your own good."

"No, you're just too noticeable." He turned back to Tsunade. "Anyway, I want, no I need a mission. Preferably something that I get to beat people up."

Tsunade sighed, "You end up beating people up whether you're supposed to or not anyway. Anyway there's a B-class mission. Some rouge ninja are running around somewhere between Konaha and Suna. Not sure what village they're from, or even if they are from a village. You can even go visit Gaara for a while if you want."

"How long do I have?"

"Three weeks."

"Six."

"Four."

"Five."

"Four and a day. You know, the mission itself is only going to take you a day."

"Good point, see ya!" Naruto leapt out the window before Tsunade decided to take any time off.

…………………..

Naruto finally reached the edge of the forest. In front of him lay a seemingly endless sea of sand. "Okay, where are the rouges?"

Concentrating he searched for any chakra nearby. Sensing two strange chakra signatures he grinned and headed toward the two.

He leapt from branch to branch, heading deeper into the forest. Eventually he came to a small clearing where two shinobi sat. He searched the two with his eyes, looking for some identification. Furrowing his brow in confusion when he found their headbands, he silently moved toward the edge of the branch.

Leaping down, he came up behind the two silently. Then deciding to have some fun he said, "So, what are two sound nins doing out here?"

The two nearly leapt four feet in the air. They hadn't been able to tell he was there because he had masked his chakra skillfully. He barely managed to stop himself from laughing out loud at their reactions.

"Where the hell did you come from!" One yelled. He had brown hair and green eyes. 'He's a bit chubby for a shinobi.' Naruto noticed in amusement.

"F-ing Teme!" The other yelled in surprise. This one had black hair and gray eyes. He was nearly opposite of his companion. While his comrade was chubby, he was pencil thin.

"Tch, tch, language." Naruto chided. He neatly stepped to the right as chubby threw a punch toward his face.

"Where are your manners, attacking without warning, now that is just rude. Of course coming from the Sound…I'm sorry that you never learned the required rules to function properly in a sophisticated society." With a roar of rage skinny charged, kunai flashing.

He started slashing and hacking with his kunai in a deadly dance. He would grunt and groan with effort. Naruto was merely watching amused as he twisted and turned, never letting him hit. "You know, you don't have to speak like a caveman, I understand Japanese."

Skinny started flashing the blades faster and harder. Suddenly Naruto felt a searing pain in his right calf. He gasped in pain when he felt skinny's kunai slash at his chest. He managed to back flip out of the way of the other, but still ended up with a cut on his cheek.

"Kuso." He swore when he saw the kunai sticking out of his leg. "Oi, chubby! That's very rude. Didn't your mommy teach you not to throw sharp objects?"

Naruto bit his thumbs, summoning his twin claws. "Okay, enough fooling around, let's end this." He poured chakra into the blades. Both sound nins watched the two blades warily.

Grinning at the wary looks he body flickered, coming up behind chubby. Before he could turn, Naruto shoved the blade into his heart. Chubby slumped, life leaving his body.

Then Naruto turned to Skinny. Skinny dropped his kunai and started running as he felt the vast amounts of chakra flowing out of Naruto's body. "Too slow." Naruto muttered, appearing in front of the Sound nin and cleanly slitting his throat.

Naruto grabbed their headbands and put them into his pack, as evidence for completing his mission. Then he started walking-limping toward Suna.

He traveled for a couple days then when he was about a mile away, his leg finally gave. He tumbled to the ground. The makeshift bandage he had tied on earlier was soaked through. "Kuso." He muttered as he felt consciousness slipping away.

"Naruto?" A familiar voice asked before he completely slipped away. He felt another presence next to him. "What happened?"

Naruto weakly opened his eyes, "Hey Gaara. Let's just say I got a little careless." And with that the last thread of consciousness fled.

Gaara shook his head in exasperation. "A little careless? He was never careful to begin with." Temari sighed. Supporting Naruto between them they carried him back to Suna.

…………………

Wow, 1, 527 words without author notes! Finally, longer chapters! Okay this isn't that long, but it's better than usual!

Please review. For the second chapter of this story I got 16 reviews! And now I'm down to 5! I hate being mean and bitchy, but I want to know that people are reading this so for the next chapter I need 10 reviews; I know you can do it! I even allow anonymous so please review, flame, whatever!


	6. Why a Hospital?

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, blinking them into focus

You guys are great, I asked for ten reviews, and I got ten reviews. But you know I wouldn't mind if I got more than I asked for. Smiles sweetly Pretty Please!

………………………..

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, blinking them into focus. Sitting up slowly he noticed he was in a small…white…room.

"Is it possible for you to come to visit unscathed?" A calm voice asked.

"Gaara, why the hell am I in a hospital?" He retorted.

"Because you decided to appear right outside the village injured…again." Gaara replied.

"Why the hell am I in a hospital?"

"Because your injuries were too serious to treat at my house this time."

"So you couldn't of treated me here and then taken me to your house?"

"I wanted to see your face when you realized you were in a hospital." Gaara replied with a smirk.

"Teme." Naruto growled, pushing himself to his feet. Gaara merely shrugged in response. Growling under his breath about sadistic raccoon temes, he grabbed his clothes off the end of the bed and stormed into the small bathroom.

Reemerging a few minutes later, he crossed his arms and glared at the Kazekage. Gaara raised his eyebrows slightly and innocently asked, "Yes?"

"Teme." Naruto growled, grabbing his arm and storming over to the window.

"You know, I don't think the doctor will be too happy to learn that you are leaving without an examina-" Gaara shut his mouth when Naruto sent him a shut-up-or-I'll-stab-you-and-leave-you-to-die-in-a-hole look. Raising his hands in surrender he followed Naruto out the window.

They quickly made their way over to the Kazekage's office, Naruto in the lead. Naruto jumped into the room and settled down on a large couch. Sighing in relief he glared at Gaara. Gaara settled into his chair and just smirked.

Without lifting his gaze, Naruto called out, "Kankuro, Temari, I know you're there, might as well come in." The door opened revealing a sheepish looking puppet user and a bored fan wielder. Coming in they looked over at the still glaring jinchuuriki and the smirking Kazekage.

Kankuro grinned. "I told you not to take him to the hospital."

Gaara shrugged, "It's his own fault for coming injured." This just earned him a fiercer glare. "You know, glaring isn't going to do much."

"So…it's fun." Naruto replied, still glaring. Gaara rolled his eyes. Kankuro grinned and Temari barely managed to muffle a snort.

"So, are you going to tell us why you're here?" Gaara asked.

Naruto walked over to the desk and leaned forward so he was almost nose to nose with the other jinchuuriki. Pouting he stared at Gaara wide-eyed. "What's that supposed to mean, I'm not allowed to visit my favorite little raccoon? You know, I've missed you so much I thought I was going to die if I didn't come right that minute."

Behind them Kankuro chuckled. Naruto's lips twitched slightly as he tried to keep the innocent pouty face on. Gaara rolled his eyes.

"Would your 'visit' have anything to do with the two dead shinobi we found in the forest?" Gaara asked, ignoring 'the face'.

At this Naruto replaced his pouting look for a confused look. "Why did you go out to the forest?"

"Curiosity. I wanted to see who could manage to hurt you bad enough to make you pass out. So, why did you fight them?"

"Mission. They were sound nins. By the way, apparently sound nins never learned manners and they get annoyed if you give them nicknames."

"I'm not surprised, what did you nickname them this time?"

"Chubby and Skinny."

"You aren't very creative are you?"

"Well it was either that or 'Meatball' and 'Beanpole'."

"Those are a bit more creative, why didn't you use those."

"Last time I used those nicknames on someone, they went into a rage worse than Chouji. They burnt my favorite shirt." Naruto replied with a pout.

"People wonder how I can listen to you and not go insane."

"You were insane waaaaay before you met me."

"Whatever. So, how long are you going to be here this time."

"Why, want to make the most of the time when I'm here?"

"No, I need to now when to have the 'Naruto's finally gone' party." Gaara retorted. Naruto stuck his tongue out at the raccoon.

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"A day."

"So, it took about two days to get here. Another day to complete the mission, and another day recovering. Eighteen days left to get home. Another two days to get back so sixteen days to spend here."

"Did you really have to do the math outloud?"

"I'm just special that way."

"Yes, you definitely are." Gaara replied sarcastically.

"You're just jealous."

"Of what? Your stupidity or your special ness?"

"Both. And the fact that foxes are better than raccoons."

Gaara rolled his eyes for what seemed to be the hundredth time today.

"Anything in particular that you want to do while you're here?" Gaara asked.

Naruto pondered this question a good five minutes before answering. "Anything in particular that you want to do while you're here?" Gaara asked.

Naruto pondered this question a good five minutes before answering. "Not really. I actually came here to get away from my village."

"Why, what's wrong with your village…well you know, besides the villagers that want to kill you." Kankuro asked.

Naruto grin disappeared as he took on a serious expression. "I dropped the mask." All three listeners froze. They all knew about Naruto's mask. They all knew how much it meant to him.

"Who?" Gaara asked.

"Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura. Our last mission."

"What jutsu?"

"Giant vapo ball of doom." Gaara rolled his eyes at the name.

"So I'm guessing they weren't taking it too well considering that you are now here and not there." Gaara stated.

"They looked like dead fish." Naruto replied moving over to the window and looking out. Gaara got up and moved so he was next to the blond.

"It'll get better. Just give them time." Naruto sighed in defeat. "I guess you're right."

At this Gaara smirked. "I'm always right."

"Cocky teme. Sometimes I wish I never kicked your ass and you were still an emotionless killing machine. At least then I wouldn't have to put up with your newfound sarcasm." Naruto retorted.

"Since you have no plans, do you want to go to the academy?" Temari asked.

Naruto grinned. "Sure, I've missed the little brats." He replied following Temari to the door.

…………………..

Naruto and Temari crept silently to the window of the classroom. Inside about twenty students sat at there desks, looking very bored. Peeking in the window, Naruto searched the faces. In the back a boy with black hair and green eyes was fiddling with something under his desk.

Naruto turned to Temari and grinned. "Hachibi is causing trouble again."

Temari smiled. "When is he not."

Naruto just grinned back and silently summoned a small fox. "Okay, you know what to do. Hachibi this time." The fox seeming to grin mischievously and disappeared into the classroom.

A couple minutes later the fox returned. "Thanks." Naruto said as the fox poofed away.

Then turning to Temari he smiled, "This will be fun!" With that Naruto disappeared.

Chuckling Temari peeked into the window and watched the events unfold. Hachibi was raising a kunai with a balloon tied to the handle and was preparing to throw it at the blackboard. Before he could toss it though, a swirl of water appeared.

The water drenched the boy and Naruto appeared. Before the boy could say anything, Naruto snapped his fingers and the boy was hoisted into the air by his ankles. Hanging from the ceiling by a chakra rope, it took the boy a few moments to figure out what happened.

Looking down he grinned at Naruto. "Naruto-sensei!" Echoed through the room as the other students saw the blond. All of them were wearing grins and some were laughing at the boy hanging from the ceiling.

"Yo." Naruto waved. Naruto looked up at Hachibi and grinned. "Hachibi, you seem to be a bit tied up."

Hachibi just crossed his arms and trying to contain a grin he asked, "Why always me?"

"That's not true, last time I got Chiyi." He responded pointing to a brown-haired girl a few seats away.

"Whatever, can you get me down already?" Naruto lazily pulled out a kunai and threw it up, cutting the string. Naruto caught the boy with one hand, by the boy's arm when he was inches above the ground.

As soon as the boy was on the ground he launched himself at the fox and hugged him. "Hey Hachibi, been up to any good pranks lately?"

"It's not as fun without you. You have the best pranks. But I did dye Ichibu-sensei's hair pink last month!" He said excitedly. Naruto snorted and looked over to said sensei.

Ichibu's white-blond hair did seem to have a faint pink tinge to it. Ichibu scowled at Naruto, but was soon grinning with the prankster.

"Unfortunetly, he learned from the best." Ichibu said.

Naruto grinned and looked around at all the expectant faces. Sighing in mock defeat he opened his arms wide. "Okay, I'm ready." All the remaining students surged over to the shinobi and surrounded him with hugs.

After a few minutes, Naruto teleported over to Ichibu and stood there gasping for breath.

The students laughed. Ichibu attempted a serious expression. "So, are you going to teach the students some new techniques?" His lips started twitching at the still gasping Naruto.

Naruto stood straight and stroked his chin in thought. "Hmmm, I don't know, what do you thing Temari?" He asked as Temari entered the room.

"I don't know Naruto, do you think the students have earned such a privilege?"

"Oh, please Naruto-sensei!"

"We've been really good!"

"Please!"

Shouts echoed through the room. Naruto shrugged, "What the heck, I've got nothing else to do."

Cheers erupted through the classroom. Grinning, Naruto walked out to the training posts, a herd of students behind him. Temari and Ichibu followed after the students, chuckling.

………………..

Yeah! Chapter six! Anyway, review, please!


	7. Treewalking without the Tree

"Okay, what do you want to learn

Okay, why is it, that when I hold a poll I get 26 replies in two days, yet I only get 4 reviews for an actual chapter? Come, on, now I know how many people actually read this, so you have no excuse not to review…PLEASE, I love checking my email to find 26 reviews in it!

……………………

"Okay, what do you want to learn?" Naruto called out. The mob of students all shouted jutsus that they had seen Naruto use.

"CHAKRA SHIELD!"

"ELEMENTAL WHIPS!"

"TELEPORTATION!"

"RASENGAN!"

Naruto chuckled at the jounin class or higher jutsus. "How about tree walking?" The students cheered loudly.

Temari walked over to Naruto. "Hey genius, how are you going to teach them tree walking…without the trees?" She asked sarcastically.

Naruto smirked. "Like this." He made some handseals. In the middle of the courtyard a small sapling sprouted. Naruto put his hands down and grinned.

Temari looked at the sapling with a look of contempt. She rolled her eyes at the blond ninja. "Yes, that sure is going to work for tree walki-" She stopped when she felt the ground rumble underneath her. Suddenly the sapling shot up. Dust flew around the growing tree blocking the view.

When the dust cleared, Temari's mouth dropped open. In front of her…was a tree equal to the size of the ones outside of Konaha.

The students were stunned into silence for a few moments before they started cheering even louder than before. Temari grabbed Naruto by his shirt and yanked him down. "This had better be removable." She practically growled at the blond.

"Don't worry, if I can't make it go away, I'll let you use me as the ax." Satisfied, and looking forward to smacking the tree down with the blond's face, she released him.

After teaching the students how to control their chakra for an hour, he started to show them how to get up the tree. Thankfully, all the students had learned from Naruto on his past visits and were very advanced.

"Okay, you all might want a running start." Naruto suggested. "Now, who's first?" All the students raised their hands in the air, calling for him to let them try. Naruto grinned. "Umm, hmmm, well, let's see. Enie, Meanie, Minie Moe, catch an academy student by their toe." At that Naruto lunged into the group and grabbed the student by their toe. He pulled the student up and dangled him upside down by his ankle.

"Why, hello Hanori." Naruto smirked.

Hanori smirked back, "You know, you have very unconventional methods."

"Your point?" Naruto grinned. He flipped the boy back to his feet.

"Ok, now, focus your chakra, and then run at the tree. Too much chakra and you'll smash the tree up. Too little, and you'll fall. Trust me, I've done both. Falling on your head isn't very much fun." The rest of the students giggled as they imagined their idol, falling out of a tree.

"Would you like me to demonstrate first?" Naruto asked, as he saw Hanori's hesitant look. Hanori quickly nodded, relief showing on his face.

"So, first focus…then run." Naruto ran toward the tree. He started running up the tree, until he finally made it to the lowest branch, which was about thirty feet in the air.

"Ok Hanori, now you try!" Naruto called down, hanging upside down from the branch. Hanori took a deep breath as he concentrated his chakra to his feet. That done, he ran as fast as he could toward the tree. Reaching the trunk he managed to run halfway up the trunk before he fell.

He plummeted toward the ground, but right before he hit, he found himself in Naruto's arms.

"You okay?" When Hanori nodded, Naruto smiled. "I never would've thought you'd make it half way before you fell, that was great!"

Hanori blushed, and beamed proudly. "Now, who's next?"

…………………

Another hour later and the students were still trying to run up the tree. School was over half an hour ago, but all of the students were still there. When parents came by to find their children, they were surprised to see a tree in the middle of the yard.

When they heard that Naruto was teaching the students, the parents merely shook their heads in amusement before settling around the yard, watching as the students ran up the tree, fell, and then get caught by Naruto or Temari.

"Almost there Sayia!" Naruto called encouragingly to the timid little girl. She made it ¾ of the way before falling. Naruto caught her before she fell two feet.

Naruto jumped to the ground, letting the girl down. He looked up and saw two people standing in front of him. Gaara looked at the tree with one eyebrow raised, while Kankuro's mouth hung open.

"Umm, Kankuro, you're going to attract the flies that way." Naruto barely smothered a laugh at the expression.

Kankuro turned to Naruto. He pointed to the tree, "That wasn't there before." He stated.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Really!? I never noticed."

Gaara turned to Naruto as well. "Must you always remodel the village?" Without waiting for an answer Gaara started walking away. "Come on, we're going to dinner."

Naruto shook his head before looking to the students. "Sorry, kids, gotta go. Kazekage's a party pooper. Well, ja ne!" He disappeared after Gaara.

The kids all groaned in disappointment before going to their waiting parents. Temari grabbed a still stunned Kankuro and dragged him after the two.

…………………

Naruto laid his chopsticks down, his plate only partially empty. "You know, it's pretty nice not having to stuff myself. I'm surprised I was always able to eat so much ramen."

"You used to make me sick just watching you eat all that ramen." Gaara replied emotionlessly. "So, are you truly taking off your mask for good?"

Naruto's small grin disappeared, replaced by a troubled pout. His eyes seemed too aged and depressed to be on his young face. "I don't know. It's so hard to work on keeping that mask up for so many years. I spent eighteen years perfecting the mask, so why did it start cracking a month ago!" Naruto was nearly yelling in frustration. Angry tears were spilling out of his eyes.

"As much as I've tried, I just can't keep it up anymore!" By now almost everyone in the small restaurant were staring at Naruto in concern and sympathy. Almost everyone in Suna knew about Naruto's mask and life.

They knew Gaara and knew that the jinchuuriki weren't the demons themselves. Unlike any other village, Suna accepted the jinchuuriki as humans. They all sympathized with the containers. They all knew that they couldn't even imagine what their lives were like.

The villagers of Suna knew that it was because of the jinchuuriki that the demons weren't still out and destroying their village. They all honored the jinchuuriki. In Suna the jinchuuriki were respected.

This was the reason that Naruto enjoyed coming to Suna. He had friends in Suna. When he walked down the streets, he wasn't glared at, he was bowed to in respect!

"If the mask is so hard to keep up, just lose it…forever." Gaara gripped Naruto's shoulder comfortingly. Naruto lifted his head and stared at Gaara with wide red-rimmed eyes.

"Stop acting like the weakling just because if makes the villagers feel better. You're strong enough to defend yourself from those idiots. It's time for you to make your own decisions…for yourself, not for others." Gaara said.

Next to him Temari and Kankuro nodded in agreement. Trying to lighten the mood, he grinned, "Wow that has to be the longest speech ever spoken at once by you."

"Baka." Gaara retorted.

Feeling better, Naruto chuckled. "So…anyone worth fighting here?"

Gaara glared at him, "You are not allowed to destroy the training grounds again." Naruto pouted in return. "I didn't destroy it…it looked kind of dull so I remodeled it."

"By tearing up the ground and turning the sand into mud?" Kankuro said, one eyebrow raised.

"Well…it was either that or a sixty foot wide crater."

…………………..


	8. Return

"Hey, Naruto, how the heck did you grow a tree

I'm so sorry everyone, but updates are going to start coming much more slowly. School starts in about a week and I'll be gone this weekend. But don't worry, I'll work on my stories as often as I can!

Okay, so the poll is changed to Haku, Temari or an OC who you will meet later in this chapter. I'm truly sorry HinataxNaruto fans, but I've been inventing new twists for this story and the way it's gonna go will not work for HinaNaru. You'll find out in later chapters. So please vote for either Haku or Temari or OC.

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"Hey, Naruto, how the heck did you grow a tree?" Kankuro asked as the four walked back from the restaurant. Naruto grinned slyly and replied, "Who said it was a tree?"

At this Temari and Kankuro stopped, giving the blond a very confused look. "What do you mean, of course that thing was a tree!" Temari exclaimed.

Naruto chuckled, "Actually, if you slice the tree up, you'll notice that it has a rock core. Then it has a softer rock covering it that has pretty much the same consistency of bark. So actually the 'tree' is just a very large sculpture." Naruto started walking away again with Gaara, acting like it was the simplest thing in the world.

Temari and Kankuro remained gaping for a few minutes before they realized that the two jinchuuriki were almost to the Kazekage's home. Quickly running to catch up to the two, they found them already inside.

……………………….

Naruto sat on the roof, deep in thought. Below him Temari and Kankuro slept, while Gaara sat with him. They sat in companionable silence, both thinking over their lives.

Naruto felt at peace in the Sand Village, much more than in the Leaf Village. The days seemed to be passing too quickly. In about a week he would have to return to Konaha.

He knew that when he went back he would have to deal with his friends. Especially Sakura. True Sakura was not as cruel as she was before but he could tell that she still thought of him as the hyperactive idiot. Sakura would take awhile to become a true friend.

He hoped that the rookie nine would be better about his change. Then he started pondering his options.

He could go back as he was and pray that everyone would learn to accept him…or he could put his mask back in place and pretend like this was all a joke. That option was almost immediately rejected. They had already seen examples of his power, there was no way that they would accept little, hyper, annoying Naruto anymore.

Then suddenly a new idea popped into his head. What if he didn't go back.

That idea was rejected too. He couldn't leave the village for good…could he?

So far the villagers weren't any different, maybe he could still put up with everything, he'd done it for eighteen years already.

"I only have one option." Naruto said, staring into the sky. Without turning Gaara remained staring at the stars as well. "And what would that be?"

"I gotta keep my mask down. In a week, I have to return to that village and deal with it." Naruto replied. Both jinchuuriki lapsed into silence once again.

……………………

:Back in Konaha. Naruto left Suna, I couldn't really think of anything else that I really wanted Naruto to do in Suna, so we're skipping ahead to when he returns to Konaha.:

Naruto flew thought the door, slamming into the wall behind. He stood and shook the dust off before returning to his seat.

"Gaki, enough of the baa-chan." Tsunade grumbled, returning to the mountain of paperwork. Behind her Jiraya was perched on the windowsill, chuckling.

"You know, ba- umm, Tsunade, there's an easier way to deplete Mt. Paperwork." Naruto said. Tsunade leapt up and grabbed Naruto's collar.

"HOW!" She shook the blond roughly.

"Shadow clones." He replied, unfazed by the shaking. Tsunade dropped him with a look of shock on her face.

"Why didn't I think of that before!" She smacked her forehead before creating three clones. With a look of utter joy she commanded, "You, you and you, paperwork, now." The three clones groaned before grabbing a handful of papers. Tsunade grinned and sat back into the couch.

"Hey gaki, why didn't you tell me about this before?" Tsunade asked.

Naruto shrugged and grinned, "I enjoyed watching you swear at the inanimate stack of papers."

CRASH

Naruto carefully pulled himself out of the new hole in the wall. Wincing slightly he made his way over to his chair and glared at the Hokage, her fist still raised. "One of these days you're going to regret punching me into the wall."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "And why would that be?"

"I'll get a serious head wound and you'll have to waste all your chakra healing me." He smirked. Tsunade rolled her eyes in response.

"So anything going on while I was gone?" Naruto asked.

"Well…" Tsunade trailed off, a grin plastered on her face.

"What?" Naruto narrowed his eyes warily.

"This." Tsunade grinned. She whistled loudly. Naruto looked around, finding nothing he gave a 'huh?' stare. "Wait for it…"

A blue blur shot in through the window, lunging at Naruto and bowling him over. "What the hell are you doing her!?" Naruto shouted at the girl currently straddling him and grinning broadly.

"Nice to see you too, Naru!" The girl replied, half cheerily, half sarcastic.

The girl looked about seventeen. She had whitish-blond hair with blue streaks. Her eyes were bright blue like Naruto's and she had blue mask pushed up on the side of her head. She wore a light blue shirt that covered down too her mid thighs. She had black capri's with a shuriken holster on her right leg. On her left was a sheathed katana. She wore black ninja sandals. On both wrists there were silver bracelets. One on each wrist.

"Kumi, get the hell off of me." Naruto snorted. Kumiki put a finger to her chin and gave him a thoughtful look. "I don't know if I feel like moving."

Naruto grabbed her left wrist and pulled her to the side. Once she was sprawled on the ground and off of him he jumped up. It took Kumiki a couple seconds to figure out what happened, but when she did, she quickly grabbed Naruto's shirt and yanked him down again.

"It's very rude to shove a lady."

"I didn't shove, I yanked." Naruto retorted, getting up once again and dusting himself off. Kumiki also pulled herself up.

………………..

The two wandered over to the ramen stand, ignoring the glares. When they reached the stand, Naruto ordered a Miso and Kumiki a tofu. With a grimace, Naruto stuffed some of the noodles in his mouth, trying not to gag.

"Hey Naruto!"

'Oh shit, kill me now!'

'Ooh ooh, let me!' Kyuubi shouted in his head.

'Not yet.'

'Damn.'

Sakura ran into the stand, dragging Sasuke along with her. "Naruto when did you get back?" Sakura asked.

"Not too long ago." Naruto shrugged, reluctantly putting another mouthful of ramen in his mouth. Sakura stared at him. "What?"

"I thought you didn't like ramen."

"I don't."

Sakura opened her mouth to respond, but Sasuke interrupted. "Sakura just drop it." Sakura shut up. Not for long though.

"Hey, Naruto, who's that?" She asked pointing to Kumiki.

"It's rude to point, and you might as well ask me who I am. I would kinda hope I know who I am." Kumiki responded, not looking up from her food.

"That's Kumiki. We met a few years ago." Naruto answered.

"Oh…How'd you meet?"

……………………

Next time, 'Who is Kumiki?' Remember vote for Haku, Temari or Kumiki. The poll won't close until after next chapter so you can get to know Kumiki. I know you'll probably choose Haku or Temari, but thought I'd give Kumiki a chance.


	9. Kumiki

This chapter is a flashback of Kumiki's life and how she met Naruto, enjoy

This chapter is a flashback of Kumiki's life and how she met Naruto, enjoy. Also, all the names in here were off a generator, because I suck at coming up with new names, so don't kill me if they're weird or familiar or something.

……………………

"Get out of here you little brat!" The shop owner grabbed a broom and tried to swat the little girl away. The five-year old ran quickly away, a pear gripped tightly in her little fist.

The small village that she lived in was poor, very poor. Many people died from starvation and disease, mostly adults, leaving many children orphaned. Kumiki was one of those children. Her parents had died when she was three, leaving her to fend for herself by stealing and begging.

The little girl quickly ran down a small ally, at the end lay a small broken down shack. The shack was pieced together pieces of wood, cloth and anything else the kids could scrounge up.

"Aki, you there?" Kumiki called. A young boy, about six, emerged from the shack along with another little girl.

Akito (Yes I know that's the guy from Fruits Basket, but I'm too lazy to come up with another name.)

Akito was orphaned when he was four. Kumiki had found the boy and they stuck together, meeting the rest of their gang together. He had dark brown hair and green eyes. All of the kids were in rags and barefoot.

The girl next to him was four. Takumi had black hair and bright blue eyes.

"Kiki!" The little girl cried, latching onto the other girl.

"Hey, Taki, where's Kichi and Haru?" Kumiki asked, prying the girl off her neck.

"Raiding." The four-year old replied. Kumiki tossed the pear to the four-year old as she sat with her back against the ally wall. Only a couple minutes passed before the three head two kids running toward them.

"Kichi, Haru!" The bubbly four year old called, leaping up to hug the two. The two boys stopped, panting, but smiling.

Heikichi was the eldest of the group at age seven. He had short light brown hair and strange reddish eyes. In his arms was a large covered jug.

Miharu also had a jug in his small arms. Miharu was the youngest of the group. He and Takumi were twins, but you would never guess. (I know, what the heck is with me and twins?)

Takumi was literally a ball of energy. She was always happy and excited. Miharu was almost her complete opposite, yet despite that the two were nearly inseparable. Haru had silver hair. The only thing the two had in common were their bright blue eyes. Haru had a grumpy attitude most of the time, yet he was by far the kindest four-year old anyone had ever met. Yet he was also the most mischievous. If someone got pranked, it was because of Haru. His personality was very strange.

Haru was the one who came up with raiding plans and all the complicated stuff.

The two boys placed the jugs down carefully and pulled off the cloth covering the goods. In one jug was some bread, fruit and carrots and in the other jug…

"CANDY!!" Takumi launched herself at the jug and grabbed a couple pieces. The other four laughed as the girl stared at the candy in awe.

"Where the heck did you find candy?" Kumiki asked.

The two boys grinned mischievously. "Know the rich guy in the next town? Stole it from him." Kumi started laughing so hard that she tumbled over.

All the kids hated the fat rich merchant that resided in the neighboring town. He was greedy, selfish and cruel.

Heikichi grabbed some candy and settled next to Akito. "Yeah, he was trying to run after us, but his fat stopped him." Kichi imitated running, which looked like waddling and he puffed out his cheeks, giving an angry expression. Then he started shaking his fist in the air.

Soon all five kids were on the ground rolling around in uncontrolled mirth.

………………………..

:Three years Later:

Kumiki sighed, nursing a bruised wrist. The other four around her were nursing similar wounds. Their last raid had resulted in the shop owner and her assistants grabbing the children and trying to drag them off to the orphanage in the next town. The children had finally broken free by kicking, screaming and…biting. Taki had first bitten the lady's hand and had quickly run the opposite direction.

Kumiki, Heikichi, and Akito had soon followed suit, but Haru couldn't bring himself to do anything to the lady. His reasoning was, 'But, she only wanted to stop her food from getting stolen.' Akito had to come back to get the lady to let go.

"Haru, you're too nice for your own good. You're good at being totally wicked for your pranks, why not when we're trying to escape capture at that stupid orphanage?" Kumiki chuckled.

Haru glared at the girl and grumpily replied, "None of your business."

Taki came over and hugged her brother around his neck. "Aww, Haru don't get grumpy, I love having a nice brother!"

This caused the seven-year old to blush. Taki was the only one who Haru allowed to hug. Anyone else he would grumpily push off.

"What are we going to do now, we don't have any food?" Akito asked quietly.

The other children took on a depressed air. Several minutes went by before Kumiki finally spoke.

"Let's leave."

……………………

"Kiki, can we stop, I'm tired." Taki complained.

They were several hours away from their village and they were starting to regret their choice to leave.

Kumiki sighed, "I guess." That was all she had to say for the other kids to drop to the ground exhausted. She lowered herself to the ground and sat with her back against a tree.

"Kiki, where are we going to go?" Aki asked quietly.

Not wanting to get everyone's hope down she started voicing her fantasies. "I'm not sure where we're going, but when we get there it will be great. We'll live free in the forests, never having to be confined in a stupid city. We'll meet lots of new people and make lots of friends. Maybe we can even become ninja."

Haru and Kichi's eyes went wide. They all were suited to become ninja if they got the proper training, but only Haru, Kichi and Kiki truly wanted to train. Akito wanted to become a medic.

"Can we really, Kiki?" Haru asked, blue eyes sparkling in excitement.

"Of course we can." Kumiki replied confidently.

……………………….

Kumiki wearily followed Heikichi as he led the small group of children through the woods. It had been four days since they last ate, four days since they left the village, and they were still trying to find their way out of the forest.

Kichi carried Takumi on his back. Haru was also exhausted but tried to hide it and refused to be carried. Luckily the seven year-olds were small for their age and very light.

All the kids were nearly falling over in exhaustion, but they determinedly kept pushing themselves forward. They managed to continue for almost an hour before Haru's legs finally gave out from under him. He tumbled to the ground.

Weakly he tried to push himself up again, but failed. He lay on the ground several minutes, panting, and trying to gather his strength. The other kids, sat down near him. Takumi settled next to Haru, hugging him as she pulled his head into her lap.

"We need to find a way out. What's the point of leaving that stupid village if we die out here anyway!" Miharu said, his eyes starting to close.

Moments later though, Haru's eye's shot open in alarm. He struggled to his feet, staring into the forest. "There's something out there." He hissed in alarm. The other four immediately shot up. When Haru says something's wrong, something is wrong.

A couple minutes later the children could hear footsteps. A man walked toward the group of kids, his body shrouded in the shadows of the trees. Kichi and Kiki had found a couple large sticks and held them in front of themselves defensively, the rest of the kids behind them. Haru had moved in front of Takumi and crouched protectively. Akito had his fists clenched, ready to jump out and attack.

Finally the man emerged from the trees and he stepped into the small clearing. The man looked old, but still strong. He had long, spiky white hair. He carried a large scroll on his back and a strange headband adorned his forehead. He gave each child a confused look before walking up to the nearest, who happened to be Kumiki.

He stared down at the girl and effortless stopped the stick as she swung it toward him. "What's your name?"

Kumiki glared at the man and kept her mouth shut. The man quirked a brow at her and swept his gaze over to the kids behind her. His eyes stopped on Haru, who was swaying slightly as exhaustion settled in again.

"Your friend needs help. He's obviously sick and weak from exhaustion. When's the last time he ate?" The man asked, looking at Haru in unmasked concern.

"Why do you care?! You're just a grown-up!" Takumi exclaimed, coming forward and letting Haru lean on her.

"Why shouldn't I care? Aren't grown-ups supposed to take care of children?" The man replied.

"Not where we come from, we don't need grown-ups to take care of us!" Kumiki replied furiously.

"Well, you may not have needed help, but now you do." The man responded. He reached into a pocket. The kids tensed, grips tightening on their 'weapons'. Finally he removed his hand, pulling out a small container.

"Sorry, but all I have right now is soldier pills. They should still help though, don't eat more than one each." The man tossed the small container to Haru, who barely caught it. Haru glared at the container before switching his gaze to the man.

The man sighed before walking to Haru, pushing Kumiki and Heikichi aside. He took the container and pulled out a small pill. He popped the pill into his mouth and swallowed. He waited a couple minutes before handing the container back to Haru, who reluctantly took a pill and finally swallowed it.

He almost immediately stood on his own and sighed in relief as the pain in his stomach disappeared. "Who are you, and why are you helping us?" Haru asked the man, as he passed the container to Takumi.

"Well, as I said before, grown-ups should help kids, and my name is Jiraya."

……………………

For seven years the five kids trained with Jiraya, each becoming strong and competent ninja. When Akito turned thirteen, Jiraya took him to meet an old friend of his. And so, Akito started learning medical jutsu from Tsunade. At that time the other kids lived in the forest, while Jiraya returned to the leaf village for awhile. They soon became known as a very strong hunter nin team. Since they belonged to no particular village, they would work for anyone who was willing to pay.

When Kumiki turned thirteen, Jiraya had still not returned and they were currently living deep into the forest outside of Konaha. They stayed in the trees surrounding a small clearing with a pool of spring water.

Kumiki threw a shuriken at the target, set up on a large tree. The shuriken glowed with blue chakra. When it reached the tree, it proceeded to slice cleanly through the tree, coming to a stop halfway through a boulder behind.

"Show off." Haru muttered next to her. He then proceeded to shoot deadly sharp needles of pure ice at the target. They also sliced through the tree, shattering against the rock.

Kumiki raised an eyebrow. "Hypocrite." She smirked. Haru smirked back.

When Jiraya had started training them, he had noticed almost immediately, Haru's weakness of causing other people pain. He quickly fixed the problem when he gave a rather loud lecture about living or dying, so now, Haru would actually attack, and wound, but only if he had too. He absolutely refused to kill though.

One of the first things Jiraya had done, was give each child a slip of paper. They soon found that Heikichi's element was fire, Akito was earth, Kumiki was wind. The twins were strange. They were somehow magma and ice. Even Jiraya didn't understand. Magma is usually used when the user has an affinity for fire and earth, Ice was water and wind. (I think.) So how the two had an affinity for magma and ice was a complete mystery.

Takumi could also use fire, but not earth and Haru could use water, but not wind.

Everyone could use at least two elements, Kichi could use three.

Akito was earth and water, Kumiki was wind and fire. Kichi was fire, earth and lightning. (Was it fire and earth or fire and wind that made lightning?)

Kichi and Akito jumped down from the trees, each twirling a kunai on their fingers. Both kunai's started glowing. Kichi's had lightning dancing along the blade, Aki's glowed green with chakra.

Both kunai's also went through the tree. Kichi's left burnt bark behind, Aki's sliced cleanly through.

"Where's Taki?" Haru suddenly asked, looking around in concern.

"I saw her wander into the woods, talking about a blackberry bush." Aki replied, retrieving the kunai and shuriken.

"I'll be right back." Haru said, flashing into the trees.

……………..

Minutes turned into hours as Haru searched and searched. He was sure the others were looking for them both by now. A small whoosh, came toward him. Unable to move in time, Haru was hit in the leg, arm with senbon needles. The last senbon needle came speeding toward his face. Eyes widened in shock and terror as the needle came toward his left eye. He managed to back up slightly with the needle as it hit so it didn't go very deep, but it was enough.

He cried out in pain, as blood started flowing from his eye. He tumbled down from the trees, landing hard on the ground, clutching his eye.

"HARU!" Someone shouted above him. Soon he felt small arms try to remove his hand from his face.

Another voice from behind was frantically apologizing, a voice he didn't recognize at all.

"I'm sorry, I heard a sound and I just reacted, I never wanted this to happen!"

Takumi finally got her nearly unconscious brother to remove his hand. What she saw made her gasp in horror. A thin needle poked out from his blue eye, the needle was buried a quarter of its length.

"Haru, Taki!" They heard Heikichi call, a small distance away.

"We….we're here!" Taki sobbed out. Moments later, Heikichi, Kumiki and Akito landed next to the two.

"A…Aki, help..him!" Taki sobbed. The others finally noticed the senbon needles.

Calmly Aki, knelt down next to the small boy. Heikichi and Kumiki's faces showed anger…lot's of anger. They appeared next to the other girl in the clearing.

"Who are you?" Kichi asked venomously.

The girl had tears running down her face. "I..I'm so sorry, I just…I just reacted."

"Leave her alone, it was an accident!" Taki cried, running over to the three. "This is Haku, she recently escaped from bandits after her master was killed. She was just waiting here for someone when I found her. I shared some berries with her and told her I'd wait with her for her friend. Then the trees rustled and she automatically reacted by throwing her needles, she didn't know there were other people here!"

Before another word could be said, a flash of orange appeared, pushing Haku back. A blond-haired boy stood in front of Haku, kunai held in front of him defensively.

"Wait, Naruto, its okay, they're friends!" Haku called. The blond boy hesitantly let his arm drop to his side, but he did not release his grip on the weapon.

Akito rose with a sigh and came over to the small group. "Haru?" Taki asked.

Akito sadly closed his eyes to stop the tears. "His injuries are all healed, but…"

"But?" Kumiki asked fearfully.

"He'll be blind in his left eye." Takumi sobbed and rushed over to her brother.

"I'm sorry." Haku said sincerely, regret evident in her eyes.

"I…It's okay…it was an accident." Heikichi said. "Anyway, I'm Heikichi." He held out a hand to Naruto.

"Naruto." He replied taking the hand.

"Haku." She said nervously. Akito came forward, "I'm Akito."

The kids looked expectantly to Kumiki, who just turned away and went over to kneel down next to Haru.

"That's Kumiki, she's…not very good with strangers." Kichi explained as he led the others over to Haru.

"That's Takumi and Miharu." Heikichi said gesturing to the two. It was then that Haru slowly started waking.

"Haru! Wake up!" Taki called. A thick bandage was wrapped around his left eye. Slowly a confused bright blue eye opened.

"Ugg, who shot me?" He asked. Haku came forward, "I'm sorry, that was me." Haru stared at the girl for a few moments before gruffly saying, "Whatever, it was an accident."

Haku blinked in surprise. "You're not mad? But I blinded you, how can you not be angry at me?"

Haru shrugged, "I heard you before I passed out, it was an accident, although if you want me to be mad, I can." The other kids quickly shook their heads frantically.

"Umm, that's okay." Four sighs were heard.

"Who are you?" Haru asked, slightly rudely when he caught sight of Naruto.

"That's not how you ask, and it's polite to give your name before asking someone else's." Naruto replied, temper rising slightly.

"Umm, Haru maybe you shouldn't-" Takumi started.

"Well considering your girlfriend over there shot me, I think I deserve to at least hear you name!"

"She's not my girlfriend, and I'm not the one who shot you!"

Haru stood, bringing his face closer. "Teme! I don't care who shot me, but I asked first!"

Naruto brought his face closer now, both glaring at the other. "So, I asked second!"

This then resulted in a glaring match before both turned their backs to the other, arms crossed.

"Great, just what we need, two temperamental brats." Kumiki sighed.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A BRAT!" Both 'brats' shouted in unison. They then glared at each other.

"Bitch." Naruto mumbled. Kumiki's eyes started twitching.

"What did you just call me."

"Crap." The other kids said, except Haru, who was smirking evilly.

"Bitch, need I repeat myself."

Kumiki brought her fist up into his face. Her eyes were blazing, and it seemed that anger was rolling off her in waves.

"What the hell?!" Naruto shouted, rubbing his sore face. Kumiki aimed a kick toward the place where no man wants to be kicked.

Naruto barely dodged and the kick connected to his stomach instead. Naruto aimed a fist toward Kumiki's face, but she merely dodged. The fight then continued, Kumiki, hitting Naruto, while Naruto tried to hit her.

………………

The kids were all gathered in the clearing, lounging around. After the fight had been broken up, they had returned to their 'home' and all soon became fast friends. Except Naruto, Kumiki and Haru.

Kumiki and Haru sat as far away from Naruto.

"Naruto, what are you and Haku doing out here?" Takumi asked.

"Well…I was sent on a mission to the wave village. On our way there we met this shinobi, Zabuza. We fought and were winning, but then Haku appeared, pretending to be a hunter nin. She put Zabuza into a fake death and took him away. Well then we continued to the village to find that it was being controlled by bandits. The village was trying to build a bridge that went to the mainland, but the bandits didn't want that to happen so they didn't lose control. They hired Haku and Zabuza to kill the bridge builder.

I met Haku in the woods one day while training. I found out she was a girl, disguising herself as a boy. I found out she didn't want to kill us or do anything for the bandits, so we made a plan. I replaced her with a special shadow clone, and that Haku fought and 'died'. Then I took her away and here we are."

Haku gave him an odd look, "How did you manage to fit all that into a few sentences?"

Naruto shrugged in reply.

"Now, what are you doing here?" He asked the other kids. And so the kids told him their story. (I'm not writing the whole thing over again.)

Naruto looked up into the sky, to see the sun starting to set. "I need to go soon, my clone I left behind won't last much longer."

"Don't worry, Naru-chan! We'll take care of Haku-chan!" Takumi said cheerfully. Kumiki hid a snicker behind her hand at Naru-chan's new nickname. Naruto scowled but allowed it.

"Well…I hope to see you all again." And with that he poofed away.

………………………..

:One Year Later, Naruto is on his training journey with Jiraya.:

Jiraya led the blond boy into the middle of the large forest. He stopped abruptly and looked up.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked.

Jiraya ignored him and brought his hands around his mouth. "HEY BRATS, GET DOWN HERE!!" He shouted, his cupped hands making to sound even louder. Two shapes fell from the trees, clutching their ears.

"Haru, Taki?!" Naruto shouted in confusion as the two carefully got to their feet and glared at the old man.

"Why are you shouting, you know we have sensitive ears!!" The two shouted at the man. Soon four more people dropped to the trees, chuckling.

"Heikichi, Akito, Haku, Kumiki!" Naruto said, startled.

"Naru-chan!" Takumi shouted, instantly changing from angry to cheerful. She leapt forward and hugged the boy.

"Hey Naru-chan." Kumiki teased. The kids had met up again a few months after they first met and that's when Kumiki and Naruto finally became friends, teasing was their way of greeting.

"Hey 'Naru-chan' look up." Haru said.

"Huh?" Naruto looked up…to find a bucket of icy water coming down on him. But this wasn't just icy water, it was dyed icy water. So for the next week Naruto was walking around with pink hair and pink-tinged skin.

………………….

The kids traveled around together for a couple years before Naruto and Jiraya decided it was time to return to the village. The kids parted. Kumiki and Naruto now had a sister-brother-like relationship. Haru and Naruto still argued fiercely but they were on friendly terms. The others were great friends.

No one wanted to part, but they did so without complaint.

………………..

:Three years later:

"Let's go to Konaha!" Taki shouted loudly. The others stopped and stared at the girl.

"Why?"

"That was random."

"Because, I want to see Naru-chan, and we have nothing to do! We're only a few miles away anyway."

So that's how they decided to visit.

Naruto entered the office. He was soon tackled to the ground. "Naru-chan!!"

……………………

Okay 11 pages, you guys better be happy and leave me a review. 3,876 words, yeah! Now remember pairings, NarutoxHaku or NarutoxTemari or NarutoxKumiki. I'm sorry, but I can't do Naruto Hinata because it won't work in this story. You'll find out why in the next chapter. Yes I know she was winning and I'm sorry, maybe I'll write another fic later with NarutoxHinata. Also I'm not good at romance and there's not going to be much romance anyway, so it doesn't really matter. I could easily make this no pairing.


	10. Colored Beasts

"Is the gang here

"Is the gang here?" Naruto asked as he led Kumiki through the busy streets.

"Yea, Taki and Haru wanted to come with me to meet up with you but then…"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "But then?"

Kumiki grinned, "Haru saw a weapons shop. Naturally, Taki went with him."

Naruto groaned, "Great, give the half-blind kid even more sharp objects. By the way, how many of those things does he have on him now?"

Kumiki smirked, "Well, let's just say, visibly he has two katanas, two daggers, two shuriken pouches and two back pouches."

"Visibly?" Naruto asked.

"No one's sure what else he's hiding, but the one's that I've caught glimpses of was a dagger up his sleeve, four knives under his leg weight, and very large shuriken under his shirt. Oh yeah, he also has some sealing scrolls strapped close to his knees under his shorts."

"That kid can be really scary. Weapon obsession and ice daggers appearing out of no where." Naruto chuckled.

"Yea, maybe we should go drag him away before he buys too many weapons. Thanks to Haku, he's taken a liking to senbon needles." Kumiki snickered.

Naruto turned at the next street, heading toward the weapon shop. When they reached the shop, they were not the least bit surprised to see Haru sealing new weapons into scrolls, Taki next to him sighing in exasperation.

The two kids had definitely changed from when Naruto last saw them about two years ago.

Miharu was now sixteen, and…very dangerous. He was also very handsome, whenever he went somewhere, girls would try to flirt with him. The others would tease him for his charming looks and cool attitude. The teenager was about 5' 6" with a lean, somewhat wirey frame. He had silver bangs that went down to his nose and completely covered his left eye. He wore a plain blue shirt that matched his eyes and black shorts that went a little past his knees. Thick leather straps went across the boy's waist and over his left shoulder. Katanas hung from both of these straps. One had a reddish hilt, gold guard and slung across his back from his left shoulder down to his right side.

The other katana had a blue hilt and gold guard. This one went almost horizontally across his lower back. On his belt he wore a dagger that matched his katanas. As if the kid didn't have enough weapons, he also had a shuriken pouch on each leg and back pouches on each side. But that wasn't it, he also had a blade strapped to his lower right leg and weights on his other. (Like Sasuke's before chunin exams) And according to Kumiki, he had knives under the weights.

Takumi was the same height as her brother and had a slight, delicate frame. Her dark hair hung down to her mid back and short messy bangs littered her forehead. She wore a low collared purple shirt with a black tank underneath. She had a sash that tied around her waist. The sash was blue with purple around the edges. Black shorts that went down to her knees were underneath. A shuriken holster was tied to her left leg and a back pouch on her right side.

She had a pink handled katana that hung down from a black chain. The chain hung about six inches, on her left hip, which caused the katana to sway and bump against her leg. To everyone's relief, she was much less armed than her brother.

Like her brother, she would also find many trying to flirt with her. Of course, she had an overprotective brother to scare away all of the suitors.

"Naru-chan!" Taki yelled, jumping up to hug Naruto. Naruto chuckled at the sixteen year-old's antics.

"You never change, do you?" Taki smiled and shook her head in reply. Haru finished sealing his weapons and came over to Naruto.

"Yo."

"That's it? I don't see you guys for two years and all I get is 'yo'?" Naruto asked in mock hurt.

Haru rolled his eyes. "Fine. Yo, teme." Naruto glared at the boy, who glared back. Soon both boys' lips were twitching as they tried not to break out in laughter.

When the boys had visited each other, they had found they had something in common. They both enjoyed pranking. Soon a strong friendship had formed, and they were partners in crime.

"Where are Kichi, Aki, and Haku?" Naruto asked.

"Umm…" Taki started scanning the street for any sign of the three. "I think they said something about surprises."

"Without me! Why those…" Haru started marching purposefully down the street, searching for their chakra signatures.

"Should we be scared?" Naruto asked, turning to Kumiki.

"Very." She answered. "They've been planning something for a while."

"Great."

………………..

Naruto walked slowly back to his apartment, trying to ignore the fierce glares. He had just left Kumiki and Takumi at the motel they were staying at. The three had searched, but the four others were no where to be found.

Something sharp hit Naruto out of his thoughts. "What the?" Naruto bent down to pick up the offending rock.

"Get out of here, demon!" Shouts echoed through the street. "The demon has gotten to strong, it's only a matter of time before he attacks the village!" Someone shouted.

Before he knew what was happening, a great mob of villages came toward the jinchuuriki. Knives, rocks, bottles, and various household items were in the villagers' hands. They came onto him in a great wave of punching, kicking and throwing.

"No, what are you doing!?" Naruto cried out, trying to block some of the hits. He refused to fight against the stupid villagers.

"We're killing the demon for good!" Shouts answered him.

'Crap, they've noticed how much stronger I am!' Naruto thought, desperately trying to escape, which was very difficult when you're surrounded.

Realizing escape was futile, Naruto curled himself into a ball, trying to protect as much as he could.

Suddenly the hits stopped. He slowly raised his head and opened his eyes to find six figures, standing in a protective circle around him. And…they were practically glowing with anger, as their chakra swirled around them. The villagers were trembling in fear as they saw the six.

One of the figures knelt down by Naruto. "Is this normal for you? Cause if it is, there is no point in healing you." Akito said, trying to lighten the mood. His hands glowed with green chakra as he started to heal the numerous bruises, scrapes and cuts.

"You temes!!" Kumiki shouted in rage, marching over to the nearest villager and lifting him in the air by his collar. The man shook in fear at the very angry girl.

"W…W….We were…j..just killing the d…demon!" The man stuttered. Wrong words. Kumiki threw the man into a nearby building.

"If you're helping the demon, then you must be demons too!" Someone shouted as a group of people charged at the group.

Kumiki unsheathed her katana, Heikichi had a kunai on each finger. Haku had pulled out her senbon needles, while Takumi unsheathed her blade. Haru reached up and unsheathed both katanas with one fluid motion, while creating ice needles protruding from his mouth.

All five remained where they were, waiting for the men to get closer. Three men advanced on Haru and Taki. Haru shot the ice needles from his mouth, hitting the men in the legs, nothing vital. Taki just stood waiting for more to come.

Two men came at Kumiki, who skillfully brought her blade up, slashing their throats. Beside her, Heikichi twirled the kunai before throwing them with deadly accuracy. Haku fired needle after needle at the men's throats.

Kumiki felt a restraining hand on her katana hilt. Looking up she noticed it was Kakashi. (They haven't met Kakashi yet.) She noticed that her friends were in similar situations. Heikichi struggled as an arm wrapped around his neck, restraining but not choking. Takumi's arms were held behind her. Haru was on his stomach, a knee on his back and his arms held to the ground in front of him. Haku was also on the ground, on her back.

The villagers were being restrained by Anbu. Tsunade calmly walked over to Naruto and the six friends. Taking in the damage that Naruto received, her eyes blazed with barely restrained fury.

She turned to the crowd and shouted, "You are all under arrest for assaulting an innocent shinobi!" She then turned to the struggling kids. "You can let them go." The five ninja nodded and released their prisoners. Haru, who had been squirming and twisting like an eel, stood and glared at the somewhat tousled shinobi. Asuma grinned back while rubbing his wrists.

Kurenai helped Haku back to her feet and handed her a few senbon needles that had gotten stuck in her shirt. Haku grinned sheepishly and accepted the needles, placing them back into her pouch.

Gai released Heikichi, and then started ranting on about his flame of youthfulness. Heikichi edged away, hiding behind Takumi.

"Are you all alright?" Tsuande asked. They all nodded but then Akito said, "Someone check Haru and Kichi, it's nearly impossible for them to come out of a fight unscathed.

Haru and Kichi grumbled as Tsunade came over and found a long cut on Haru's arm and a black eye forming on Kichi's face.

When Tsunade had finished healing them they both lunged at Aki, only to be stopped by Kumiki, who grabbed them both by their shirt collars.

Naruto weakly rose and looked over his friends, making sure none of them had any more injuries. When he came to Heikichi and Akito, he grinned. Everyone had changed a bit.

Heikichi was now twenty, but he still acted like a kid. His light brown hair was wild and poking up all over the place. He now wore a dark red t-shirt. He wore dark blue baggy pants that stopped a couple inches above his black ninja sandals. Like the rest of his teammates he had a katana, his was strapped to his waist. Arm guards adorned both arms and a red and black mask hung on his belt.

Akito was now nineteen. He had a green short-sleeved top and bandages wrapped down to his wrists. He had a strap running from his right shoulder to his left side, which held his katana strapped to his back. He had many pouches attached to his belt where he kept his medical supplies. He wore dark green, almost black, pants that tucked into his ninja sandals. A green and tan mask hung off his katana strap.

Naruto furrowed his brow in confusion. He turned to look at Takumi and Haru and noticed they both also had masks. Haru's was a white-silver color with black markings, and it was secured to his belt on his left hip. Takumi's was attached to her black chain that held her dangling katana. Her's was purple and white.

He had noticed Kumiki's, but had thought it was just some strange fashion statement for her. Her's was blue with silver designs.

"What's with the masks?" Naruto asked.

"You mean you haven't heard of us?" Kumiki asked in genuine surprise. The other ninja around them also seemed surprised.

"What?" Naruto asked defensively.

"Naruto, your friends here are pretty famous, you must've heard rumors of the Colored Dragons. The group who appears where they are most needed. They do whatever job they feel needs doing and does it, before they disappear. Each of their masks represent a dragon and an element." Kakashi explained.

Kumiki chuckled, "Wow, you're probably the first person I've met who hasn't heard of us." She held up her mask. "I'm the wind dragon." When Naruto examined the mask he could see that it indeed looked like the face of a dragon.

Kumiki then gestured toward the others. "Kichi's fire, Aki is earth, Taki is supposed to be magma, but since Kichi already chose red, she decided she wanted purple, Haku is water and then Haru is ice. Haku and Haru nearly fought for ice though." Naruto nodded approvingly at each person.

"Well, today was a very…surprising day." And with that Naruto finally passed out from exhaustion.

……………………….

"What are you talking about!" Tsuande yelled at the elders in front of her.

"Uzumaki Naruto has violated Konaha's law by attacking the villagers." They replied smugly.

"No he didn't! The villagers attacked him!" Tsunade really wanted to strangle them.

"We have spoken to the villagers and they say that he attacked them first. We have twenty witnesses-"

"Who want the 'demon' dead!" Tsuande interrupted.

"Our decision is final…Uzumaki Naruto is banished from the village."

………………………….

Naruto stared at Tsunade…and stared…and stared. "Y…y…your k…kidding…ri…right?" Naruto finally stuttered out.

Tsunade had tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry gaki, I was overruled, they've wanted you gone for a while, and now…they got their chance. They're using the excuse that you attacked the villagers unprovoked." Tsunade hugged the boy.

"I…I understand baa-chan…it's not your fault…I guess I can leave with Kumiki." Naruto lowered his head, bangs covering his eyes.

"Of course you can come! It'll be fun! Soon you'll forget all about this stupid village…no offence Tsunade." Kumiki tried to comfort the blond.

"No offence taken, right now I'm considering this village stupid as well." Tsunade grumbled.

"You know, this doesn't have to be permanent." Haru said from his corner.

"Huh?" Was everyone's reply.

Haru sighed, "The old geezers are the ones who banished him, it hasn't gone through anyone of the clan heads, so when the old farts finally die…probably won't be too long, and then you can come back. Tsuande can just say you're on a…very long mission, hunting bandits and rouge nin and whatnot."

Everyone stared at the boy. "T…That is true." Tsunade finally said.

"Haru is so smart!" Taki threw her arms around her brother's neck and kissed his cheek, causing them both to fall over in an undignified heap. "Taki!" Haru yelled in exasperation.

The others in the room soon started chuckling as the pair tried to untangle themselves from each other. Somehow Haru's bangs had gotten tangled in Taki's katana chain, so when she got up, Haru was bent over trying to untangle his hair.

Tsuande froze for a moment. "What happened to your eye?" Since Haru's bangs were lifted, everyone could clearly see the scarred, clouded eye.

"Accident." Was all Haru muttered, finally releasing his bangs so they flopped back over his eye.

"It's actually how we all met." Naruto chuckled.

"You met by blinding a kid?" Tsunade asked in confusion.

"Hey I'm not a kid!" Haru protested.

"You're more than twenty years younger than me, you're a kid. Now brat, story!" Tsuande retorted.

"Well, Haku accidentally threw a senbon needle into Haru's eye and since I was nearby looking for Haku, I heard the yell and came to find Haku with five other strangers."

Tsuande already knew about Haku, from Naruto. "Hmm." She walked over to Haru, and gently lifted the bangs from over his eye.

"Huh, what are you doing?" Haru asked, trying to back away…too bad he was already in the corner.

Tsuande examined his eye carefully, as he tried to pull away, people close to his face made him nervous…people too close to him at all made him nervous.

"Quit squirming brat." Tsunade snapped, stepping back. "I've been working on some new techniques that can heal people's senses. All the ninja who come back crippled. Sometimes they're blind or deaf. We're trying to heal that."

Haru's eyes were staring at Tsunade in shock, wide and pleading. "C…could you…f…fix my eye?" Haru finally gasped.

"We're not done yet, but I should be able to heal you in about two months." She answered.

"Could you really do that for him?" Haku asked. She still felt guilty for blinding Haru, even though he forgave her a few minutes after she did it.

Tsunade nodded. "Unless something goes terribly wrong in the experiments, then yes."

Tsunade soon found, thin, yet strong, arms wrap around her in a bear hug. "Arigato."

"I haven't done anything yet." Tsunade replied gently, returning the hug a bit less…bear-like.

"So, you gave me hope."

The rest of the kids stared at Haru and Tsunade in shock. Haru never expressed his feelings so…openly.

………………..

The Colored dragons were gathered at the gate, waiting for their newest comrade. Naruto soon walked up to the six with a several sealing scrolls attached to his belt.

He sighed as he turned and took a last look at the village. He hadn't told anyone he was leaving, except Shikamaru who noticed something odd and demanded an explanation. Shikamaru had agreed it was best if the others didn't know.

"Hey Naru-chan." Kumiki tossed something at Naruto who deftly caught it. He brought it down so he could examine it. It was a wooden mask. It was the face of a kitsune with black swirls on it.

"Welcome to the Colored Beasts. You get to be the Wind kitsune."

"We decided, if you join, we should do something new, so we all got new masks." Takumi explained, proudly showing him her mask. He mask was still purple, but instead of a dragon it was cat.

Heikichi now had a falcon and Akito had a stag. Haku had a rabbit and Haru's was a wolf, but Kumiki still had a dragon.

"You did all this just because I'm in the group now?" Naruto asked.

"Of course, not, we've been wanting to do something new for a while and you were the perfect excuse!" Kumiki said happily, slinging and arm around his shoulders. Naruto chuckled and removed his headband, from his arm and put it in his pouch, then he placed the mask onto his face.

"Now you're officially one of us!" Kumi said excitedly, putting her own mask on. The others followed suit. Kumiki body flickered to the large tree right outside the gate, the other's close behind. Only Naruto stood there.

"Are you coming?" Kumiki called.

Naruto grinned and followed the others as they flicked from tree to tree, deeper and deeper into the forest.

………………………

OMG, you guys should be so proud, I updated before school starts! I updated twice before school starts! And both chapters were huge! (In my mind they are huge)

Although school starts tomorrow and then I start my new job, so I won't have much time to write. Also DoA2 readers, that one will take a while. I posted it before I was ready, so…sorry.

I can't believe how many people are voting for Kumiki, I thought she would be the one with the least votes because she's an OC. Also HinaxNaru fans, sorry, but Naruto's not going to be in the village for a while, so he can't build a relationship with her. Sorry!


	11. Loss

The ten shinobi quickly made their way through the dense forest

I was going to make this chapter longer, but then it would take longer, so I thought, 'I've made everyone wait long enough.' It's my birthday tomorrow, so I put a chapter up in celebration! I'm turning sixteen!

…………………………

The ten shinobi quickly made their way through the dense forest. Above them, seven shadows followed through the trees. The ten sped up, when they saw a faint light ahead.

Moments later they emerged at a camp. About fifteen more ninja were in a circle, ready to fight. The ten joined the ranks and waited for the seven.

A couple minutes later the seven flickered down to the ground, evenly spaced around the outside of the circle. Seven masks stared at the group of twenty-five. A dragon, wolf, fox, cat, falcon, stag, and rabbit stared at the group.

Metal clanged slightly as the group drew kunai, shuriken and katanas. The colored beasts each drew their weapons of choice.

The dragon drew a blue-hilted katana. Wolf had two long katanas, fox had twin claw blades. Cat and falcon also drew katana, stag kunai and rabbit had senbon needles. With a small nod from falcon, the seven flickered to the group, effortlessly defeating the enemies. Soon it was down to five. Unfortunately these five were quite skilled, at special jounin level.

Dragon and fox took on one, rabbit and cat another while the others went one on one.

Kumiki appeared behind the man slashing. He ducked down, dodging the blow, but Naruto came from the side to slash his arm. The man dropped the katana he held, his arm limply falling to his side. But the man wasn't finished, he lunged toward Kumiki, pulling a kunai from his side. He slashed her across the stomach. It wasn't deep, but it still stung. Naruto launched himself at the man with a roar, stabbing him through the stomach with one of his three-clawed weapons. The man jumped back with the stab, so the wound wasn't too deep.

Kumiki ran towards the man. She ducked a blow toward her head, still running. When she was close enough she dropped to the ground. Using her leg, she swept the man's feet out from under him. He fell, and dispelled with a poof, a log in place.

Naruto scanned the trees, until he came to a shadow, barely noticeable, but slightly out of place. He flickered up to the shadow and kicked the man down to the ground. Kumiki was waiting, "Wind: Slashing Breeze!" She shouted. Wind blew at the man, slicing up trees along the way. The man tried to dodge the wind, but soon found, that there were also kunai in the technique. A single kunai, was blown in the man's direction. The weapon hit, burying deep into his stomach.

The man stared at the weapon in shock before he dropped to the ground.

Haku threw countless needles at the man, as he tried to figure out which mirror held the real Haku. Cat was also inside the circle of the mirrors distracting the man so Haku could shoot needles from any direction without him noticing. Soon the man was on the ground, dead.

Heikichi pulled his falcon mask off, he was never good at fighting with a mask. He was going to kill the man anyway. He blocked a fierce blow with his katana, the force felt strong enough to shatter his blade. Kichi pushed the blade off his own and darted in to stab the man in the chest. The man quickly backed up, so the blade didn't pierce too deep. Kichi jumped forward, blade extended again. At the last second, Kichi flickered behind the man and stabbed him through the throat. The man didn't even have time to put up his blade.

Akito dodged the slashes, stabs and hits effortlessly. He had put his weapons away and was swiftly punching and chopping at the man with glowing hands. The man was large and slow so it was easy for Akito to subdue him, finally delivering the final blow to his neck.

'Of course, I get the fastest one.' Haru grumbled to himself as he tried to land a blow. The man was as quick as Haru, which was saying something. The man had twin blades. Four blades clashed together, the sound echoing through the forest. The others who had finished, watched Haru's fight, ready to step in if needed.

With a growl of frustration, Haru trapped both blades between his own and stabbed them into the ground. The other man pulled at his blades, but Haru's pinned them securely. Haru put his right hand up his left sleeve, pulling a curved dagger out. He brought his blade down toward the man's shoulder, but was stopped by a hidden knife. The man grinned and twisted the blades, throwing Haru's through the air.

The man lunged toward Haru who stopped the blade with a short blade that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Where did that come from?" Heikichi asked.

"Behind his neck, hidden down his shirt." Takumi replied.

Heikichi turned back to the fight to see Haru with two new blades, three more thrown to the ground.

"Where does he hide all these?"

"Everywhere." Takumi chuckled.

Haru was truly frustrated now. The man had a lot of hidden weapons too. With a growl, he pulled a scroll from under his left pant leg. He unrolled the scroll, biting his thumb and smearing it along the scroll's length. He pulled the scroll in front of him, countless kunai and shuriken flew out at the man.

The man fell to the ground kunai and shuriken through his legs and arms. None touched his stomach, chest, neck or face. Takumi flickered over to her brother. She unsheathed her katana and slashed the man's neck, while Haru turned his head away.

Heikichi, Naruto, and Akito stared at the youngest. "How many weapons do you have?!" Haru put a finger to his chin, pondering. "Umm, probably twenty on me, and over five-hundred kunai, shuriken and senbon needles in each scroll." Jaws dropped to the ground.

Takumi bounced over and slung a slender arm over his shoulders, "And he has six scrolls!" She trilled.

Naruto leaned over to Heikichi, "Remind me to never get on his bad side."

"Same here." Kichi answered. Haru rolled his eyes at the two. "Don't worry, I wouldn't kill you with the scrolls, they're a pain to reseal." He groaned, stalking over to the kunai and shuriken littered on the ground. He started gathering them up and sealing them into the scroll.

"Hey Naruto, get over here." Akito demanded.

"Huh?" Naruto replied. Akito sighed, "You're bleeding." He pointed to Naruto's shin. Naruto looked down to see that he actually was bleeding.

"When did this happen?" Naruto asked, letting Akito examine the wound.

"One of Haru's stray needles, cut you." Takumi answered. Takumi was the observant one, she kept track of everything. Almost nothing got past her.

Naruto looked over to where he had been standing and sure enough, there was the needle, stuck in the ground.

Akito wrapped a small strip of bandage around the cut and announced, "You'll live."

"You're lucky, most of my needles of tipped with poison." Haru said, tying the scroll back under his pant leg.

"Why are you poisoning your weapons, I thought you didn't kill?" Naruto asked.

"The poison paralyzes, no killing involved." Haru replied.

"Even though you don't kill, you are one scary kid." Naruto replied, walking over to where Kumiki and Heikichi were talking.

"So, where are we going next?" Naruto asked.

"We've been hearing about some disturbances near Suna." Kumiki replied.

"Hmmm, how long has it been since we've seen Gaara?" Naruto asked.

"Well, considering we left the village two years ago and we saw Gaara a few months after we left….one year and nine months ago." Kumiki replied.

"Yea! Let's go see Gaara-kun!!" Takumi cried, jumping up into the nearest tree. Haru quickly followed. Akito sighed, shaking his head. "

"We better go after them before they reach the desert." Akito followed the twins, Heikichi following.

"Shall we?" Naruto asked. "We shall." Kumiki chuckled.

…………………

"GAARA-KUN!!"

Gaara sighed, while Kankuro started cracking up with laughter. Last year, when the Colored Beasts had visited, Takumi had insisted on calling Gaara, 'Gaara-kun' and for some strange reason…he let her.

"Gaara-kun!! Takumi yelled, jumping into the office and leaping onto Gaara, wrapping slender arms around his neck. Gaara sighed in annoyance, "What the hell are you doing here Takumi?"

"We got bored, decided to come for a visit." Naruto replied, the rest of the Colored Beasts around him.

Gaara rolled his eyes at the blond and said, "Actually, I was expecting you to visit sooner."

"Huh?" Naruto replied in confusion.

"You haven't visited since last year, so I knew you'd be coming before too long." Gaara replied.

"You know us too well, anyway got any missions?" Naruto asked, sitting on the corner of Gaara's desk. Sand from his gourd promptly pushed him off. Naruto glared at the floating sand before picking himself up from the ground. Behind him he could hear Heikichi and Miharu snickering.

Gaara opened a drawer and grabbed a scroll. He threw it to Naruto without a word. Naruto untied the scroll and started scanning the contents. "A couple Akatsuki seen near here. Deidara and Kisame, what are those two doing together? Whatever, we'll take it." Naruto tossed the scroll over to Kumiki.

"Let's spend a few days here then we'll go after Akatsuki." Heikichi suggested.

"We should go now before we lose their trail." Naruto argued.

"We just spent eight days traveling almost nonstop, we need to rest!" Kichi retorted.

"We're fine, we've fought in worse condition!" Naruto scowled.

"I agree with Naruto, we should go before they get any further away." Kumiki added. Kichi glared at them both before reluctantly nodding.

"We'll be back in a few weeks Gaara." Naruto said, jumping out the window.

……………………..

Naruto quickly dodged a wave of water. It had not taken long for the group to find Kisame and Deidara. Merely two days after leaving Suna, they had come across the two. For the two days, Kichi had refused to talk to Naruto, still upset at him for not allowing rest.

A loud explosion was heard near where Haru and Taki fought. Ice was surrounding the area around where Haru, Taki, and Haku fought Deidara. Haru swiftly started doing a long series of hand signs. While he did this, Haku and Taki tried to distract the clay user. Haku threw senbon needles, none making a hit. Taki was slashing at the man with her katana, but all of her swings either missed or were blocked by his kunai.

Finallly finishing, Haru yelled out, "Ice Beast, Impale!" Taki and Haku jumped out of the way, landing behind Haru.

The air became colder, Haru blew ice from his mouth, which gathered and formed a large wolf of ice. The large beast had a long icy tail and white wings. The wolf charged toward Deidara, whipping its tail out to the man, the tip sharpening into a deadly icicle.

Deidara jumped up, but the wolf followed leaping into the air and flapping the large wings. The wolf swept one of its large wings toward Deidara, forming ice along the way that shot at him. Each was as sharp as a katana and was roughly the size of a kunai. Deidara retaliated by throwing exploding clay. A couple clay birds got past the wolf and zoomed down to Haru.

Haru jumped away, grabbing Taki and dragging her along. Takumi did a few hand seals and shouted, "Magma flare!" Boiling hot magma shot up from the ground around her, shooting up at the clay-user.

He jumped away, some of the magma catching his cloak. He quickly extinguished the flames and prepared some clay.

"Well, the brats can actually fight." He taunted. He glanced above Haru's head, a smile forming. The two were standing next to a high cliff. Haru spun around, seeing Deidara's gaze.

"Taki, move!" He yelled, pushing her out of the way just as a large clay bomb hit the cliff. Rocks tumbled down onto Haru, who put his arms over his head, hoping to reduce any damage. Rocks and dirt fell thickly, quickly burying the boy.

"HARU!" Taki screamed, drawing the attention of the remaining group. Haku was throwing senbon needles furiously at Deidara, tears running down her face.

Taki ran to the large pile of rubble and starting digging desperately, oblivious to the still falling rock and dirt.

"Taki, stop, get out of the way!" Akito yelled. Taki ignored him. A huge piece of the cliff fell, cracking and splitting as it fell toward Takumi.

"TAKI!" Heikichi cried, as the large rocks fell over where Takumi still dug. Heikichi grabbed Akito's still sheathed katana and charged at Deidara, who was still dodging needles. Deidara barely managed to stop the blade with his kunai.

…………………..

"HARU!"

"TAKI!" The yells echoed over to where Naruto, Kumiki and Akito fought Kisame. Akito ran toward the sound, leaving Naruto and Kumiki with Kisame.

Kisame smirked, "Looks like Deidara got 'em."

Kumiki stared over at the area where the others fought. Her gaze was stuck on the huge mass of rubble that buried her friends. "No…Taki…Haru…" She muttered quietly. She heard laughter behind her.

She spun around in sudden anger to see a laughing Kisame dodging swipes from Naruto's claws.

"You bastard!" She screamed, pulling out a scroll and swiping some blood along it. In a poof of smoke, two large shuriken appeared.

"Tornado Shuriken!" She yelled throwing both shuriken at Kisame. Both quickly formed tornadoes around then, the wind razor sharp. Kisame dodged the tornadoes, to find…they followed him.

"Kuso!" He swore as a tornado caught him on the arm, ripping at the skin and drawing bloody gashes. The second tornado quickly joined the other, shredding Kisame's cloak.

"Deidara, come on!" Kisame yelled, finally breaking away from the tornados and flickering over to the other man, who was still dodging senbon needles and katana swipes. Kisame grabbed the katana and shoved Heikichi away, while Deidara threw a katana at Haku's arm.

Before they could recover, the two Akatsuki were gone.

……………………..

I'm really sorry about the wait, but my life is hectic. School from 7:00 to 1:40, and then work from 3:00 to 6. Then, doing stuff with my friends on the weekends, not much time to write.

I know that everyone says I move to fast and I know it. I just can't help it, it's my writing style, I'm sorry! I know I ask for constructive criticism, but could people please stop telling me to make the story move slower, I can't help it, I'm not good with detail and everything. I don't mean to sound rude, but it's starting to get annoying having like two reviews each chapter saying to move the story slower. I appreciate the tips but I just can't do that.


	12. Goodbye

"I told you we needed to rest first!" Heikichi yelled, tears running down his face. Naruto sat on one of the fallen rocks, his head buried in his hands.

"Kichi, he made a mistake, we all make mistakes. The rock fall had nothing to do with exhaustion though." Kumiki tried to soothe the man. Heikichi turned on Kumiki.

"Don't take his side! He pretty much killed Haru and Taki!" He cried, rage evident on his face.

"It's not his fault!" Kumiki yelled back. "You think he wanted them to die!? You think any of us wanted them to die!" Heikichi backed down, falling back onto a rock and sobbing into his fists.

"Why them? Why the twins?" He sobbed. Akito came up behind Kichi and placed a comforting hand onto his shoulder.

"I know what you mean. Why is death so cruel, that it takes the youngest?"

Suddenly a loud, sharp cry came from a few feet away. The others spun around to see Haku on the ground, on her knees. In her hands was a small knife…a small black-bladed knife. This was the knife that Haku gave Haru for his fourteenth birthday…he never took it off.

"Haru…" Haku cried. Kumiki hugged Haku to her, Haku sobbing into her shoulder. "I…I was going….to…t…t…tell him!" Haku sobbed.

"Shh, I know." Kumiki cooed. Over her shoulder, Kumiki saw Naruto give them a confused look.

"She loved him." Kumiki mouthed over to the blond, a few tears escaping her eyes. Naruto looked stricken.

He lowered his head and shook it, a few tears flying away. He growled and made a single hand seal. Kumiki's eyes widened and she grabbed Haku and jumped behind Naruto. Heikichi and Akito also gathered behind Naruto. "Demon winds: Away!" Naruto shouted, wild wind gathering around him and blowing over at the rubble. Rocks and debris flew up and away, quickly reducing the pile to nothing.

The others quickly came over when they saw Naruto crouch down and gaze down at something.

"Naruto, what is it?" Naruto turned to look at Kumiki, he had tears in his widened eyes.

Kumiki quickly came over and gasped. Seconds later she was on her knees, sobbing.

"Kumiki!" Heikichi called, concerned. He came over. "No…" He gasped. On the ground in front of them…was blood…lots of blood. Around the blood were large patches of ice.

The blood covered an area of six feet. Thanks to Kyuubi, Naruto could tell whose blood scent it was.

"Who?" Akito asked hesitantly.

"Haru."

"You idiot, you probably blew them away with that stupid jutsu! Haru's bleeding to death and now we have to find them!"

"Heikichi…Haru's already dead." Akito stated.

"What!?"

"No one could've lost this much blood and lived for more than half an hour without medical attention. They're dead already."

"What about Taki?" Naruto asked, grief in his eyes.

"They have a very strange, special bond…they're connected, if one dies, so does the other."

………………………………

Naruto collapsed against a large tree. The rest of the team around him. They had been searching for the past day, searching for their friends, but to no avail. They had scoured the area, but no sign of the twins was found.

Heikichi walked up to the nearest tree and banged his head against it, hard enough to draw blood. His eyes were scrunched in grief, his teeth clenched. This was especially hard for him, Haru was pretty much his little brother. When they had found the twins at age three, Heikichi had taken it upon himself to raise and teach Haru, while Kumiki took care of Taki.

Naruto started, jumping up. He tensed, pulling a kunai out. The others quickly followed suit. He looked up into the dense foliage and glared, " Come out, we know you're there."

Three Anbu appeared in front of the group, one had the mask of a wolf, another a cat and the other a dog.

The group tensed when they saw the wolf and cat mask.

"What do you want, Shikamaru?" Naruto asked tiredly. The dog removed his mask to reveal Shikamaru's bored expression.

"We came under direct orders from the Hokage." He replied lazily.

"You can come back to Konoha. The village elders passed away a month ago." The wolf said.

"It's rude to talk with a mask on, teme." Sasuke smirked and removed the mask. Beside him, Ten Ten also removed her mask.

Ten Ten glanced around quickly, "Where's Miharu?"

The Colored Beasts tensed, grief filling their eyes once again. "We attacked Deidara and Kisame…he fell."

The three Anbu snapped their necks around to stare at Naruto. "What!?"

"He and Taki were trapped under a rock fall, and we haven't found them yet." Naruto's bangs covered his eyes, hiding the turmoil in his eyes.

"Are you sure they're dead?" Shikamaru asked.

"His blood littered the ground." Naruto replied.

"That doesn't prove anything, except that he's injured." Shikamaru replied.

"Do you really think anyone can live after losing enough blood to soak the ground six feet across and soaked four inches deep into the ground?" Naruto retorted coolly.

The group fell silent. Finally Ten Ten stepped forward. "I'm truly sorry, but Tsunade requests that you return immediately."

Naruto's eyes flashed dangerously, "Why?"

"Orochimaru is on the move. He plans to destroy the village." Shikamaru replied.

"He's tried before, what makes this time any different."

"I wonder, how about the army of sound nin who don't feel pain, and the only way to kill them is to rip out their hearts?" Sasuke retorted.

Naruto eyes widened. "What?"

"A group of chunin encountered a group of these ninja on their last mission. One returned, and he died shortly after reporting. Apparently, Orochimaru has done some experimenting, so now there is an army, none of them feel pain, whether it's a headache or a blade, they are nearly invincible. We need all the help we can get. Suna has agreed to help us, but even then, it might not be enough."

Naruto sighed and brought a hand up to his forehead, "How long?"

"Two months." Shikamaru replied.

Naruto walked over to the far side of the clearing, the rest of his dejected group behind him. They quietly discussed, while the Konoha shinobi waited patiently. Finally after several minutes, Naruto turned back to the other group. "We'll be there in a week."

…………………

After the Konoha shinobi had left the colored beasts continued their search for the twins.

"Heikichi, we've been searching for days, I don't think we're going to find them." Kumiki cried, falling back onto a rock, covering her face in her hands.

Naruto sighed, bangs covering his eyes. "She's right, all that we found is blood, a couple knives, a couple patches of ice, and more blood. And that was all in one place."

"Then where are the bodies!" Kichi yelled, eyes blazing. Despite how long and how carefully they searched the area, no trace of the wolf or cat could be found.

"By now they could have been dragged off by wild animals, or they could be blown off into some unknown part of the forest from Naruto's jutsu." Akito sighed.

"Guys, we need to start heading toward Konoha, we promised we'd be there in a week, and it's already been six days." Naruto said sadly.

Heikichi's eyes flashed, "Of course, you just can't wait to be back with you friends! Who cares about teammates!"

Naruto growled and grabbed Heikichi by the shirt and slammed him against a tree. His eyes were glowing red and fangs were bared.

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare say I don't care about them! This team is my family, I care more than you could possibly imagine! I know you think it's my fault, no problem, I'm used to it, but I'd rather have the fox rip me up than leave if I believed the twins were still alive!" He abruptly dropped the frightened Kichi to the ground.

"N…Naruto…I'm sorry, I know you care, I…I just…why them?" Heikichi spoke, his head lowered and tears falling into his lap.

Naruto's eyes changed back to blue and he lowered himself down to Kichi. "I know. It's not fair that our little sister and brother were taken. But even as young as they were, they knew it was dangerous, living the life as ninja. They wouldn't want us to fight. Haru would probably be banging our heads together and telling us to stop moping around and get stronger so we can kick Akatsuki's ass while Taki was jumping around, happily giving us as many bruises as she could with her katana sheath." Naruto smiled gently, a couple tears running down his cheeks leaving a shining trail.

Behind the two, Akito, Haku and Kumiki were smiling, knowing what the twin's would have said.

"Arigato Naruto." Kichi finally said.

…………………………..

"Baaaaaaa-chaaaaan!" Naruto yelled out goofily, ducking as an inkwell flew over his head.

"About time gaki!" Tsunade replied irritably, a smirk on her face. She got up and grabbed the boy, crushing him in a hug.

Seeing the rest of the team enter, her smirk faded, replaced with a sad frown. "I'm sorry to hear about your loss. They were brave ninja.

The team instantly sobered, drunken grins and laughter gone. "They were. But they would want us to move on." Kichi replied.

"Tsuande-sama, we were hoping we could have a small funeral for them with our friends." Kumiki asked hesitantly.

Tsunade gave her a comforting smile. "Of course, I'll it set up for tomorrow."

…………………….

A small intricate plaque rested against a large tree, right outside of Konoha. The plaque was light gray with an intricately carved cat, painted purple. Next to the cat was a silver wolf. The cats tail twined around the wolf's. In beautiful lettering were the names of the two who had fallen.

Around the plaque, were gathered the Colored Beasts, the rookie nine, Tsunade, Jiraya, Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai. While the Beasts were visiting, they had met the rookie nine. They had all immediately become friends with the energetic Taki and grumpy Haru. Haru and Kakashi had gotten along surprisingly well. Kurenai had though of Taki as a daughter even they had only known each other for a few days. Asuma had met the twins and taught them how to play shougi. Gai had caught Haru while he was training and they had sparred, ending with Gai teaching Haru some Taijutsu and Haru teaching him how to use a specially designed taijutsu staff.

The Colored Beasts stepped forward, together. Kumiki laid a beautiful bouquet of purple and white flowers in front of the plaque, tears streaming silently down her cheeks. "Bye Taki, Haru. Love you two."

"See ya later, love ya. Takumi and Miharu Kichuea." Heikichi said solemnly.

"Goodbye Taki. I love you Haru, wait for me." Haku said softly, tears running down her face onto the ground.

"Well, at least I don't have to constantly patch you two up anymore. Stay out of trouble." Akito said, stepping away and slipping his mask on.

"Sorry it ended this way. Sorry you never got you eye fixed Haru." Naruto took Haru's knife and sliced his palm. Letting the blood drip down next to the plaque he bared his fangs. "I swear, I'll send that bastard to hell for you two. I'll stab him through the heart with this knife."

The rest of the assembled group came and paid their respects to the twins. Then, they slowly drifted back down to the village until only Tsunade, Jiraya, Naruto, Akito, Heikichi, Kumiki and Haku remained.

"Brats, I know you still grieve for them, I understand, but we must figure out how to deal with Orochimaru." Tsunade said.

"The best thing can do is train, prepare, fight and hope we don't lose." Naruto replied bluntly. "If everyone can take on the soldiers, then we'll take down Orochimaru." Naruto pointed to the Colored beasts.

…………………….

I'm so sorry for the late update everyone. I've been trying, but like I said before, my life is kinda hectic. School, work, eat, sleep, homework. That's pretty much all I have time for except on weekends.

Also, I got a review asking about Haku. I know he's a boy, but he always seemed to girly so in this fic he's a she. Team 7 didn't know though, except for Naruto. Also I like the pairing of Haru and Haku…I don't care that's he's an OC, I love my Haru! *Hugs*

Haru: Get off, I'm still mad that you killed me.

MoonDrake: Come on, I still love you Haru, out of all my OCs, you're my favorite!

Other OC's: HEY!


	13. Preparing for War

Sorry it's kind of short.

………………………….

"Phoenix Gale!"

"Tri-Beast Winds!"

Wind and fire merged together creating the terrifying image of a phoenix bearing down on its prey. Wings spread wide and the bird flew, wind cutting along behind in its wake.

Three tornados spun wildly, claws, fangs, tails, and glowing eyes reaching out and grabbing the phoenix. The phoenix gave a loud screech before exploding in a flurry of fire and winds, causing two of the tornados to disperse. The third continued toward the blond, who was grinning as he finished flashing through hand seals.

"Dragon Storm!!!" He yelled out. Wind whipped around him and soon formed the twining, twisting form of a dragon. The beast's eyes glowed red and red fiery wings emerged from its back. It brought a paw down, crushing the inferior tornado. It opened its huge jaws and roared, fire swirling out, with wind, leaves and water twisting around the flame.

A small 'eep' was heard from the blond woman, battling the man. "Okay, I give up, just make that oversized lizard go away!" She shouted.

Naruto smirked and had the dragon poof away in an eruption of fire and wind. "Let's see that makes the score…three to none." He grinned as Kumiki pouted, smacking the man with her katana hilt.

"Aww, don't be a sore loser, Kiki!" Heikichi laughed, jumping down from the tree he had been watching from.

"Its no fair when he uses that dragon, it's unbeatable!" She tried to reason.

"Just have to figure out its weak spot." Akito said, appearing behind Kichi.

"Which would be where?" Kumiki asked hopefully.

"Figure it out."

"You're so unhelpful!" Kumiki yelled giving him a bruise on the forehead with her sheath.

"Naruto!" The group turned toward the voice to see Sakura running toward them. "Tsunade-sama is holding a war meeting, come on, or we'll be late!" She cried, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him along.

……………………………

"The war is only two weeks away, we must be prepared!" Tsunade shouted. "All teams must be ready to fight at a moments notice, the patrols and scouts must be tripled, we still don't know what direction they're coming from. Be ready!"

"HAI!" Shouts echoed through the room. Shinobi ran out, frantically to keep training. With the threat of Orochimaru only two weeks away, everyone was a tad tense.

Soon only Naruto, and the rookie nine remained along with Tsunade and Jiraya.

"Wow. Two weeks. I hope everyone's ready, cause I sure as hell aren't." Shikamaru said lazily.

"I don't think anyone's ready." Kumiki replied with a grin. We'll pull through though."

"I'm ready, bring on that snake bastard!" Heikichi yelled, with a grin and a fist in the air.

"Quit being an idiot." Akito sighed, hitting his head, causing Kichi to tumble to the ground.

"Aki, why must you be so hurtful?" Heikichi whined, rubbing the bump on his head.

"You act like the old Naruto." Hinata giggled.

"I take that as an insult!" Naruto pouted, "I acted much worse!" He grinned. He lazily wandered over to Hinata and pulled her into a kiss.

Everyone except for The Colored Beasts and Shikamaru stared at the couple with jaws on the ground.

"Whoa. When did that happen?" Sakura asked.

"Three weeks ago." Akito replied. "They got together after realizing this might be their only chance."

Naruto finally broke the kiss and sighed when he saw the looks. "Lee, close your mouth, I don't want to hear about flames of youth or some other one of your freakish yells of victory. Ino, I think a fly just flew into your mouth, Ten Ten, you might want to catch that kunai, before it falls on your foot. Choji, eat you dang chips already. Kiba, you're not good enough for her, quit glaring. Shino…stay like you are…great! Neji, you look like a tomato, its not like I'm going to rape her…yet." He grinned foxily.

This caused Neji to lunge at the blond fox who merely grabbed Hinata around the waist and flicker away.

"NARUTO!!!"

…………………….

Two weeks later:

The village was silent, the usually bustling streets empty. All the villagers had been taken up to the bunkers where they would be safe and out of the way. The genin surrounded the buildings, ready to protect the villagers if needed.

Naruto and the Colored Beasts stood on the wall above the gate. They stared out at the slowly approaching shinobi. Orochimaru was at the head, on top of a large snake.

"You ready?" Naruto asked the rest of his team.

"Ready as we'll ever be." Kumiki replied with a small smirk, while unsheathing her katana. Naruto summoned his claws.

"Let's settle this."

………………….

Hee Hee! Yep, I know on my poll, Hinata was winning, and some new ideas popped into my head, so I thought, why not alter the story so my readers could have their NarutoxHinata! Sorry to those who wanted him with Kumiki. Also, I made Hinata a little more outgoing in this…thanks to Naruto…who wouldn't get a bit more crazy being around him for extended periods of time.

Yes, you're welcome!

If you not a NaruxHina fan, don't worry. There's not gonna be very much romance. I suck at romance.

Only a few more chapters to go!

Read and Review please!!!


	14. Battle

"Colored Beasts, do what you can!" Tsunade ordered. The Beasts who were up on the wall with the rest of the elite ninja, used their jutsus to start diminishing the enemies numbers. They had found out that the 'invincible' ninja could be killed if burned, or frozen and broken into pieces. The Beasts were best suited for this job since many of their combinations included fire.

"Raging Storm!" Naruto and Kumiki yelled. Kumiki called the wind and had tornados and huge gusts of wind storm below. Naruto added fire to the mix. The tornados burst in flames, burning anything in its path. The breeze carried the flames along.

Heikichi added lightning, zapping many targets below. Haku targeted groups of ninja at once, freezing them all in grim determination.

Unfortunately, these attacks only took out about a quarter of the army, leaving the rest to attack the village. Soon, war raged around the village and surrounding forest. Jounin, Chunin and Genin attacked fiercely, ready to sacrifice their lives for their village.

There was no sign of Orochimaru yet, but it was only a matter of time.

…………………….

"Sakura, Sasuke, watch out." Kakashi ordered, Sharingan flashing. A chidori chirped in his hand, as he ran it through the chest of a large man.

The man collapsed to the ground with a strangled sob. Sasuke whipped around to find an extremely large man holding an axe above his head, ready to strike. Sakura gathered chakra and punched the ground, sending a huge shockwave through the hard earth. The earth was uprooted, the man in its path. The man lost his balance and fell back, axe falling to the ground next to him.

Sasuke nodded his thanks to Sakura and charged his chidori, planting it into the man's heart. Deftly pulling his hand out of the man's chest, Sasuke whipped around, kunai flashing as he moved to the next opponent.

Meanwhile, Naruto had jumped into the fray. With a fluid grace he twisted and turned, taking down opponents with his twin claws and then setting fire to rage through their ranks. He turned quickly, claw raised to be met with a katana. The katana blocked the claws and twisted down, trapping them. Naruto looked up into yellow eyes. The man grinned widely, a long tongue snaking out of his mouth.

Naruto's eyes widened as he jumped back, away from the man as his sharp teeth drew blood from his thumb. Naruto hurriedly bit his thumb at the same time. Both slammed their hands to the ground yelling, "Summoning Jutsu!"

Smoke covered the surrounding area. Orochimaru appeared through the smoke, perched atop the head of the Snake lord, Manda. Across from him appeared Naruto, Gamabunta under him.

The surrounding ninja had stopped and stared up at the two huge summons.

"Ahh, Manda, can't say it's a pleasure to see you again."

"Gamabunta, you old toad, do you think you can beat me?"

Before Gamabunta could reply, another poof of smoke appeared, showing Tsunade atop a equally large slug.

"Actually, yes, I think WE can." Gamabunta replied.

Manda merely flicked his tongue before lunging at the large toad, trying to wrap its coils around and biting into his neck. Gamabunta retaliated, grabbing the snake and slamming its body away. The toad pulled out its katana and raised it, ready to stab.

Manda slithered back and lashed its tail at the slug. The snake was able to wrap around the slug and squeezed. Manda squeezed harder and harder until the slug burst into millions of tiny slugs. Tsunade jumped up and raised a chakra enforced fist. She slammed it into the snake who was pushed to the ground.

Naruto leapt at Orochimaru, both claws raised with his arms crossed up. Both were glowing, one red, one blue. He uncrossed his weapons in a flash, a wave of fire and wind slashed down on Orochimaru.

Orochimaru pulled out a katana and slashed the wave in half. He lunged and soon claws and katana flashed together in an intricate series of slashes and blocks.

"Sssoo, did you enjoy my little surprise?" Orochimaru grinned as he blocked another slash.

"What surprise?" Naruto growled.

"A few weeks ago, the death of your two little friends." Orochimaru hissed, enjoying the look of shock that flitted over Naruto's face.

"What are you talking about, that was Akatsuki." Naruto shot both claws forward.

Orochimaru dodged and smirked, "Yes, but they had no idea you were there."

Naruto faltered and was rewarded with a small cut on his arm. "What?"

"Lets just say, a little snake told them." Orochimaru smiled, sword heading straight for Naruto's chest.

Naruto pushed the sword aside with his claws and stepped back. Red chakra enveloped his body and he was trembling slightly.

"YOU BASTARD!" A cry was heard from behind. Heikichi charged toward Orochimaru, sword raised and eyes blazing. Tears ran down his face.

Naruto's head shot up, eyes red and slitted. He raised a claw and joined Heikichi. Orochimaru was dodging each blow but soon the two angry beasts managed to get a few hits.

Tsunade and the rest of the colored beasts watched the fight with mixed emotions. They had all heard the truth about their friends' deaths. They desperately wanted to join in the fight but they knew someone had to keep the sound nins away from the three.

"KICHI!" Kumiki cried out as she saw the snake grab the boy's arm. A sickening crack was heard throughout the battlefield, along with Heikichi's anguished scream.

Heikichi, barely conscious now, was thrown to the ground. Naruto charged forward but Orochimaru threw him further away into a large tree that snapped under the pressure.

Before Naruto could recover Orochimaru raised his sword and aimed it down to Heikichi's heart.

"Die!" He yelled slamming the sword down.

"BURNING ICE BEASTS!" Out of nowhere two dragons soared into the sky. One was flaming and red with icy horns, wings and claws. The other was of ice with flaming wings. The two dragons twined around each other and flew straight at Orochimaru. The dragons knocked the sword away before it could kill and forced Orochimaru to jump away. The dragon slammed into the ground, freezing the ground and burning the trees.

Smoke was everywhere. All of the ninja had stopped they're battle staring in awe. As the smoke cleared, two figures could be seen walking toward Orochimaru.

One had a katana in their right had while the other had two, both slung across his shoulders lazily, hilts gripped in each hand loosely.

The two stopped in front of Orochimaru. The sound of metal sliding on metal was heard as the boy pointed both katanas at the man's heart.

Blue eyes flashed dangerously. "Stay away from our friends."

"H…Haru?!" Heikichi cried from the ground.

………………………………

Ok, seriously I'm soooooooooo sorry! Thank you all the people who kept yelling at me to update! I really am trying my best but now I have to deal with high school, work everyday till 6, homework, by the time I'm done I don't have much free time. Also I've had some major writers block. But hey, at least I finally updated….with a cliffie….sorry bout that, but I've already started the next chapter! Love you all, please review!


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